cooking extravaganza

6 stocks of celery
4 pounds of carrots
2 whole chickens
10 pounds of potatoes
8 onions
26 cubes of chicken bullion
10 cups of cheese
4 packages of fusilli noodles
garlic salt
parsley
salt
pepper

This, my friends, is the list that a friend and I took to Smith's on Saturday night. Needless to say, we got some funny looks at the store.

We are now well versed in cooking whole chickens and mass producing soup.

random thought of the day

When I get the hiccups, I get the hiccups.

Not just one or two, but big hiccups that involve my whole diaphragm and last for an extended period of time. Also, whenever I get them once in a day it is a guarantee that I will get them at LEAST one more time.

I have had the hiccups six times today. Seriously. I am over it. haha.

a little taste of heaven

Oh how I will miss you, beautiful island of Oahu.

tis the season

I love this time of year. The older I get the more I learn to love it. I used to loathe the snow and the cold that comes along with it. Now I welcome it. Snow is a beautiful thing. Each and every snow flake is majestic and falls as if doing a dance. It covers all the dying shrubbery in a beautiful white blanket. Then there is the smell of the crisp fall air, the rosing of my cheeks every time I step outside, carving through the snow on a snowboard, and of course the fall/winter fashion trends.

Another welcoming trait of this time of year is the holiday season. Everyone is giving, loving, and charitable. It seems that others needs are better taken care of and looked after. It is a beautiful thing. As a people we seem to really embrace those around us.

In the spirit of these pre-Thanksgiving weeks, I thought I would give a little rundown of what I am grateful for.

• My family. Each and every one of them. I love you guys!
• Friends. You make everyday so much better.
• A good job. I truly enjoy going to work.
• The view from my apartment window. The mountains never looked so pretty.
• Education. You have changed the way I look at the world.
• Religion. I can be whole again.
• Never ending opportunities. Life is so much more exciting because of them.
• Life experiences. You have helped mold me into who I am today.

the good life

I was talking to one of my coworkers the other day. He mentioned something that has stuck with me. He said "if everyone in the world were to put their problems into a hat and choose which set of experience they wanted in life, we would all want to have our own problems back".

The more I think about that, the more it seems to ring true. We do all have our problems - everyone; not just the obvious ones either. Everyone experiences life in a different way and we all have our own perception of things. Something that may be life altering for one person might not even phase another. One person might come out on top of an adverse event when the same exact thing might completely consume another. As such, we should always be aware of what others may be experiencing on the inside. I know for me at least, way more goes on inside my head than I will ever let out.

What I perceive to be the moral of the story is that you can't judge a book by it's cover. Anyone at any given moment might be going through a life changing experience that has no physical manifestations. There are times that we may appear rude or disgruntled that we don't even realize it. Everything that we do and say has to do with our perception of the world around us - the things we learn, the things we do, and the opportunities that we have. We become the people that we are because of the way that we experience life.

That being said, I do have to give thanks as well. I'm not really sure that life gets much better. I mean, it's pretty much guaranteed to as I continue to get older and experience more things. But, I do have to say this - my life is good. I have an amazing family and excellent friends. I love my job and my roommates. My ward is great, my apartment is great, basically life is just good. And I will be in Hawaii a week from yesterday. Does it get much better? Like everyone else, I have my problems, but really life is good. So good.

Food for Thought

I came across a copy of this article at work yesterday. I found it rather fascinating - which probably has a lot to do with the fact that I work at Intermountain and live in Utah. It also adds some good points to the current healthcare debate.

Making Healthcare Better

my silent plea

More holiness give me,

More strivings within,

More patience in suffering,

More sorrow from sin,

More faith in my Savior,

More sense of his care,

More joy in his service,

More purpose in prayer.

More gratitude give me,

More trust in the Lord,

More pride in his glory,

More hope in his word,

More tears in his sorrow,

More pain at his grief,

More meekness in trial,

More praise for relief.

More purity give me,

More strength to o'ercome,

More freedom from earthstains,

More longing for home,

More fit for the kingdom,

More used would I be,

More blessed and holy

More, Savior, like thee.

-Hymn #131, More Holiness Give Me

with love

“Are you always in a good mood?”

“Do you think it spreads? Do you think it makes others around you happier?”

“I think it does.”

Those were the question posed to me yesterday at work. It struck me and caught me off guard. It caused me to turn inward to try and determine an appropriate answer.

Really, I just want to be there. I want to be someone that others can trust. I want to be the person that anyone can talk to and feel safe sharing deep emotion, or frivolous emotion – whatever is needed in the moment. I want to spread the Gospel of Jesus Christ by example. I want others to be comfortable and happy around me.

I try to find the good in everyone that I come in contact with. The amazing housekeeper that strives to keep our lab spotless. The cute little old lady driving her car 25 in a 45mph zone. The adorable old couple walking hand in hand around temple square. The kind gentleman who I stick with a needle to draw his blood twice a week. My amazing and inspiring boss. My best friend who knows me better than I probably know myself. The phlebotomist that I am learning to love far more that I would have ever thought possible upon first meeting her. My roommates who were kind enough to ask me to live with them. My family that puts up with all my crap. My Heavenly Father who looks after my each and every move and is always there even when I stumble. The list goes on. I don’t think I could ever write a comprehensive one.

I am surrounded by amazing people that have done incredible things in their lives and continue to do so. So many of them have come in contact with such tragedy but get through it with flying colors. They all offer inspiration to me. I am a better person because I know them. They help to lift and inspire me to do good each and every day.

My deepest desire is that I can in some way return the favor.

picture memories

My weekend in Federal Way with Emily goes as follows:

We made killer cake batter cookies. 1 package cake mix, 1/2 cup brown sugar, 1/2 cup butter, 1 tsp. vanilla, 2 eggs and you have perfection.

Return of the Sunday afternoon ritual. Beautiful. Emily randomly had a blue feather up her red dress. We were in the green grass on a plaid blanket. Go figure.

Frolicking in Seattle. Girls just wanna have fun, isn't that right Emily? haha.

Joining the gang of 10 BMWs that passed us on our way back from Mt. Rainier - going 70 on windy mountain roads around sharp corners.

Hiking to the Grove of Patriarchs.

There were lots of bees.

The trees were incredibly old - we are talking 1000s of years here.

...and also they were gigantic. They don't come like that in Utah.

Needless to say, I had a fantastic weekend getaway with my best friend. Thanks for everything Embed!

it's a good day

I woke up abruptly this morning at 7:42.

It was one of those mornings that your bladder wakes you up. Also, i was STARVING so that probably had something to do with it.

Let me tell you how very glad I am that I woke up with a start this morning.

There is a free clinic in South Salt Lake, Maliheh Free Clinic, that Cherie and I have been wanting to check out for a while now to see if they have any volunteer opportunities. Today happened to be the day that we decided to do just that.

Since it opens at 9:00 a.m., we decided to be there right around then. We went in expecting to fill out some paper work, maybe have an interview, and really just find out what kind of volunteer opportunities they had, if any at all.

This is what happened:

We were taken to the RN in charge of the operation for the day. She was THRILLED that two Med Techs had walked in her door ready to help. She quickly gave us a run down of the purpose of the clinic and a little bit about what happens there. Then she took our picture and gave us shirts and applications. About this time, everyone realized that the person who was supposed to be running the lab this morning had a funeral that he needed to attend - meaning they didn't have anyone to cover the lab.

Enter Tiffany and Cherie.

Basically they said here is the lab, anything you will need can be found here, and set us free to run the lab all by ourselves. We drew blood, did some basic testing, and learned how to work their 20 year old centrifuge.

Every single person - nurse, doctor, tech - was so happy that we were willing to help. I was thanked more times today than I normally am in a month. It was so good to feel like we were really making a difference and helping all those people out.

Working in health care can tend to be kind of stressful. Hospitals have all sorts of rules and regulations (out of necessity) and people generally aren't happy to be there. Even one mistake can seriously effect the life of a patient. I think that health care workers (myself included) sometimes forget that everyone involved is doing the best they can and only want to the best for the patient. Don't get me wrong, I love everything about my job and I don't have any complaints. It was really cool though to be able to see the mentality of the free clinic. Everyone that is there is there because they want to be. No one is getting paid, there aren't any special perks. Everyone is a volunteer and is there to help people. By choice. And everyone is so happy and helpful.

When we left, about 3 hours after we first arrived, one of the doctors escorted us out. The RN in charge gave us big hugs and profusely thanked us. We truly made a difference today.

What they have going on at the Maliheh clinic is truly amazing and I am glad that I got to be a part of that today. I look forward to the many days that I will be spending there in the future.

vertigo

Vertigo is a real condition and not just a CD by Vertical Horizon. I know this because I experienced it today for probably the first time in my life. I've been dizzy before, but nothing can quite compare to true vertigo.

I drive up and down Parley's Canyon every day. It is an altitude change, but nothing that I thought was a big deal. Apparently it messes with my ears and sense of balance. As a Medical Technologist I am pretty close with the microscope. Today for the first time in a couple months I sat down at a microscope. Let's just say that it didn't go over very well. After counting cells for about 2 minutes I was hit with a wave of nausea, then came the dizzy, light-headedness. Luckily, I was able to finish the slide I was looking at but not without a bit of strain. 

As soon as I was done I basically ran to the office so I could lie down and let the moment pass. Lucky for me, our pathologist was in the lab today. She proceeded to ask me what was wrong, get a blood glucose done on me, make a diagnosis, and tell me how to treat my symptoms. Every one took very good care of me - offering me water, mints, and helping me get my lunch. 

After about an hour the moment had passed and I was back to my chipper self. I got some sudaffed and gum that will hopefully clear out my fluid filled ears that are messing with my balance. I will find out tomorrow since I have to be on the microscope again. 

Wish me luck!

nirvana

nirvana: (according to Merriam Webster)

1 : the final beatitude that transcends suffering, karma, and samsara and is sought especially in Buddhism through the extinction of desire and individual consciousness
2 a : a place or state of oblivion to care, pain, or external reality; also : bliss, heaven b : a goal hoped for but apparently unattainable : dream

Today I found nirvana. 

Since I ran my half marathon almost a month ago now, I have been seriously slacking on my running. I didn't have the motivation I had previously and I didn't want it to feel like a chore when I went. I wanted to enjoy it. Today I went for my first good, challenging, long(ish) run since August 8th. 

It was amazing. 

I found the coolest little place called Memory Grove which leads into Memory Park. It is a pretty little mountain trail that winds in and out of the trees with a stream along side that ends at a quaint little park in downtown Salt Lake. I had no idea where it would take me when I decided to run down it, but I am glad that I wanted to explore.

The run back up was a little killer, but it made me remember truly how much I have come to love running-and also how much I have missed it this last month. Running up the hill back to 11th Avenue and B street all I could think about was how perfect it all was. The run, the scenery, the time of day, the sunset, everything. Coming up the final turn I had a picturesque view of the Capitol building with the whole valley in the background. It was truly breathtaking. 

I truly found nirvana today.

personality typing

This last weekend, my roommates and I all took personality tests then had a rather enjoyable time reading through our results. It was kind of incredible how accurate they all were. The type of test we took was a Myer-Briggs (or something like that) personality test. Here is a quick summary of my results:

I am an ISTJ. That means that I am 

INTROVERTED: 

• are interested in their own thoughts and feelings
• need to have own territory
• often appear reserved, quiet and thoughtful
• usually do not have many friends
• have difficulties in making new contacts
• like concentration and quiet
• do not like unexpected visits and therefore do not make them
• work well alone

SENSING:

• see everyone and sense everything
• live in the here and now
• quickly adapt to any situation
• like pleasures based on physical sensation
• are practical and active
• are realistic and self-confident

THINKING:

• are interested in systems, structures, patterns
• expose everything to logical analysis
• are relatively cold and unemotional
• evaluate things by intellect and right or wrong
• have difficulties talking about feelings
• do not like to clear up arguments or quarrels

and JUDGING:

• do not like to leave unanswered questions
• plan work ahead and tend to finish it
• do not like to change their decisions
• have relatively stable workability
• easily follow rules and discipline

All of the information that I have listed can be found here. There are lots of other places that you can find out more information about your specific "type". We had a lot of fun with it and learned a lot. And, like I said earlier, interesting how accurate it is.

the wrong girl

Dear Jiffy Lube Mechanics,

You chose the wrong girl to try and sell unnecessary parts to today. Allow me to explain why:

First off, I am a mechanic's daughter. As such I know a thing or two about cars. Now, I do not claim to be knowledgeable by any means but I am not ignorant. Trying to sell me a new battery when my battery has been fully functional might not be a very good idea. I drove to your store straight from work - which means my car had just started without any problems.

Also, because I am a mechanic's daughter I have been well educated in the fact that not all in your profession are necessarily honest. I do like to give people the benefit of the doubt though so I started my car successfully three times after leaving. I am now beginning to question your honesty in this situation.

In the future it might be better if you didn't try and make extra money off of me (or any customer for that matter) when they don't need it. And just because I am a girl does not mean I am ignorant.

Sincerely,

Tiffany

things i have learned

The last month or so has been a month of learning for me. Weird one might think since I just received my bachelor of science, but I learn something new everyday. It is surprising me how much I am learning about myself in so short a time in my new life.

1.  I am much more of a baker than a cook. I always used to make the excuse that I will start cooking more when I have time. Turns out I cook just about as infrequently as I did while in school. But don't worry, I still bake. More than ever.

2.  The important parts of my day are exercising, working, sleeping, and reading.

3.  I love the temple. I can't go a week without it.

4.  I can do things now. Like buy a season pass to The Canyons and randomly fly to Seattle. Just because I want to - and mainly because I have the time. Awesome.

5.  I am not nearly as adult as I would have guessed I was. I still have so many things to learn and experience in this life. I may or may not be naive, but every single day I learn something new - whether it be about myself or the world around me. Getting a degree doesn't mean that I know things.

Life is good. Until next time.

broadway in the desert

This last week was definitely a good one. I think that I can get used to not having to balance school and work. 

One of the advantages is that I can go home whenever I want to and not have to worry about how much studying I am going to miss out on. So, this last weekend I went home. My mom, sister and I went to see Footloose at Tuacahn. I cannot tell you how AMAZING it was! We had so much fun clear up until the very end. None of us wanted it to ever end. Definitely something that I would recommend.

Brittani and I as Ren and Ariel. Aren't we cute?

Here we all are waiting for it to start. It looks pretty empty at this point, but by the time it started the place had filled up. They did a raise your hand survey to see how many people were from out of state and coming to see Broadway in the Desert and us Utahns were a very small minority. We thought that was interesting.

In other news, I decided to try and hide the awesomeness that my finger has become. Consequently, I went from this: 

To this:

Better? I like to think so. Besides, it helps to bring out my gothic side that has been lying dormant for a while now. haha. AAAAAND the best part is that you can't even tell I have necrotic tissue and clotted blood hiding under my fingernail. Fantastic!

my faves

The top ten things about my new life as a college graduate and working woman (in no particular order):

1. I work at this place. Pretty much it is a hospital in the form of a resort. Very suiting for the typical Park City resident.

2. I go to work, get off of work and get to do whatever my heart desires. It is a new found freedom that my roommates and I are rather enjoying.

3. I get to read what I want - no more of this book hiatus because I have to make myself study. It's a beautiful thing.

4.  Jack's Mannequin + The Fray = amazing.

5.  Random road trip to Idaho with my ward. Zip line and water slides were included.

6.  This next one pertains more to this week than the other 2 that I have been up here - my finger doesn't hurt anymore! It still looks like it should be on a dinosaur rather than a person, but it is painless. That is all that matters.

7.  I live in the middle of everything. Pretty much anything that I could want I can find within a 5 mile radius of my apartment.

8.  Which brings me to my next point: I love Salt Lake! Particularly downtown...

9.  New bedroom furniture! 

10. And last but not least, every single weekend is a party. Pretty much every single week day is too if I am going to be honest with you. Life is good.

i am ready.

Two weeks from today I will run in my half marathon. 

After my run today, I am officially ready.

This next week is more of a week to let my body recuperate from 2 runs that were over 10 miles in 2 weeks.

But because I was able to do those long runs these last 2 weeks, I am ready.

Wish me luck!

black and blue

I recently got into a fight with a door at work. Needless to say, the door definitely won. And more likely than not, my fingernail is going to be a casualty in this incident.

This is not a picture of my hand-but, a picture of my nail would look pretty similar. It is my left pointer finger and the nail is almost all completely blackish purple like the one in this picture. Also, the blood you see pooling on the nail in this picture is because this person melted a hole into their nail to relieve the pressure. I did this as well. I flamed a pin, touched it to my nail, and in it went. Seeing your fingernail bleed is definitely an interesting experience (and completely painless by the way), let me tell you. But I can no longer feel my heartbeat in my finger anymore so it was worth the gruesomeness of the procedure. I'm not going to lie, I was a little fascinated by the whole thing. And I have never lost a nail before so that will be interesting as well. That basically sums up my nerdiness in a nutshell.

Hopefully the nail will fall off soon so the rest of the pressure will be relieved and the inflammation will go down. That is what I am hoping for at least.

Moral of the story: don't smash your fingers. Especially in big heavy lab doors. The experience is pretty painful. I never even knew that my finger could hurt so much for so long.

But do not fear, I have gotten past the pain and I am now just fascinated by all the little changes that are taking place in my finger. It's kinda cool actually.

afternoon playlist

My best friend Emily is in town. That always causes for at least a little adventure. Here is today's:

Because she rode to Utah with some family and didn't have a car, Emily ended up borrowing one of her friends. Turns out his car has a killer sound system. We always tell him to play girl music in it but he just doesn't ever listen. I don't even know why. So, because she borrowed his car today, we played the music that we wanted to - and at a really loud decibel. 

Our playlist went as follows:

1. Mormon Tabernacle Choir, High on a Mountain Top. It was SOOOO cool on his sound system! It literally sounded like we were in the conference center with all the bass and surround sound. AMAZING.

2. Katy Perry, I Kissed a Girl. So we digressed pretty quickly from Mo Tab to Katy Perry. But, we had to play this one for old times, inside jokes sake. It also happened that we were driving past the MTC right at the time this was playing. Oops...

3.  Kristinia Debarge, Goodbye. This one has a pretty funny story attached to it. We were driving down state street on our way to target playing this song (and of course singing and dancing along). We looked over at the truck next to us and the guys in it were singing along with OUR music. It was HI-LAR-IOUS. 

4.  Rihanna, Breakin' Dishes. We actually started this one pretty quietly, but then we were stopped at a light next to this guy in a nice Mustang who was trying to be all cool with his loud music and nice car. Well, you guessed it, we decided to blow his sound system out of the water with our borrowed one and turned our music right up. The next 30 seconds at the stop light he couldn't stop laughing because he knew our sound system killed his, and lets face it, it was a pretty funny situation.

5. Pussycat Dolls, I Hate This Part. We might have been blasting our music, driving a little faster that we should have been and ended up driving right past a cop. No worries, he didn't even think twice about our law-abiding behavior.

6. Beyonce, Single Ladies. This one took some effort because every time I would set my ipod to play this song it would play an Akon song - not quite what we were going for. But, eventually it worked out. We did have to drive around the block in order to hear the whole thing though.

Love you Emily.

life goes on

There are big changes happening in my life. Change is good.

I am officially a registered Medical Technologist now. 

I am an alumni of BYU - with a bachelor's degree.

I am moving to a new apartment in a new city in a couple days.

I start my new job in Park City one week from today.

Welcome to my new life. Funny how things change so quickly. It seems like I have been waiting to get to this point in my life for a long time and all of a sudden it just happened. 

Weird. Exciting. Scary. Awesome.

I'll let you know how it goes.

sleep, sweet sleep

Like almost every Saturday, my day started bright and early at 4:45. Unlike most Saturdays, my alarm didn't go off so my wake up call was the person at work wondering why I hadn't shown up yet. On the bright side, I did get an hour more sleep than I was expecting. Very exciting.

Last night I went to the Mormon Miracle Pageant in Manti with Krista, Daniel, Daniel's brother and sister, and one of Krista's friends. We went down in two separate cars (girls in one boys in the other). The ride down consisted of a lot of singing, mocking songs that we were singing, and laughing. Once there, we ate some tortilla sandwiches (compliments of Krista) and drank some delicious lemonade. While waiting for it to get dark so it could start, we played some catch phrase. I LOVE that game - I almost forgot how much fun it can be. Finally it got dark and the Pageant started at 9:30. It was fabulous, as it always is.

Our drive home started at around 11:30. Manti is an hour and a half away from Provo when there isn't any traffic. Both Krista and I are the type of people that go to bed early. If either one of us is awake after 10:30 it is a rare occurrence. It was my goal to stay awake and talk to Krista on the drive home so that she wouldn't fall asleep since we had both far exceeded our bedtimes. I did pretty good for the first little while. In fact, I was able to stay fully awake and even semi functional clear up until we got to Nephi - which, mind you, is about half the drive. After that though, it went downhill fast. I was in and out of sleep. But I was trying so hard to stay awake. One thing that you should know about me is that I talk in my sleep. On a pretty regular basis (just ask Emily - she will tell you all about it). My sleep talking abilities did not disappoint last night. I would randomly wake up and know that I was talking but have no idea about what. Or I would know what I was saying but not really know why or know that it definitely didn't make any sense. I really have no idea what I was saying to Krista most of the time. She assures me though that I talked and even sang along with the radio. She did say that she was grateful and that it helped keep her awake, even if I wasn't conscious at the time. 

Deep down inside my tired mind running for almost 21 hours straight, I knew that I wanted to talk to her and help keep her awake. And don't even worry, I did my part. Whether it made sense or not, that is another story.

Thank goodness for late night adventures! There is never a dull day.

curiosity killed the cat

The following should not be tried at home.

My roommate has an awesome protective father (so do I by the way) who has so kindly supplied our apartment with pepper spray. Last night one of my friends and I were intrigued by said pepper spray and decided to see just exactly how it works/what it is. He was anxious at first to spray it so I took it, held it away from both of us and gave it a timid spray. A few drops dripped onto the floor, but nothing major and it was actually very anticlimactic. Then my friend took it and gave it a good spray into my kitchen sink just to see what would happen.

Let me tell you, I sincerely hope that I never have to smell that stuff again, much less get sprayed with it.

Even smelling into my sink from a distance sent both of us into coughing fits that lasted a solid 5 minutes - not counting the random coughing fits that came throughout the rest of the night. Once our coughing would calm down, just trying to say something would set it off again. It was CRAZY. After a long walk and some fresh air, both of us were feeling better and decided to go back to my house. The chemicals were still in the air enough to make us start hacking again, but not as bad as before. And I was able to sleep in my house last night without any problems. Don't worry, my sink is currently soaking in bleach to rid it of both the smell and the funny brownish yellow color.

Moral of the story: don't ever do anything that would make you get sprayed with pepper spray. It is a WAAAAY better self defense tool than I could have ever imagined - and I only smelled the stuff from a distance! I am pretty sure that it would incapacitate anyone who got sprayed for a good long time.

notes from europe (part III)

Day 11:  Day three of the cruise was another duplicate of day one and two. The difference is where we stopped. We went to Santorini this day. We rode something that is very similar to a ski lift up to the top of the volcano that is the island. We walked along all the little shops and bought some killer gelato before walking down the cliff. Sister and I both wore flip-flops and both of us fell straight on our behinds once and slipped many times. Flip-flops + Marble staircase = bad. And it was HOT! But it too was a good experience.

We were up so high! This picture doesn't quite do it justice, but it was an incredible view nonetheless.

You can get taken up the side of the mountain by donkeys as well. We opted for the ski - lift route, but on our way down we kept running into hoards of donkeys.

Day 12:  We unloaded off of the cruise ship this day and toured all over Athens. We saw the first modern Olympic Stadium and the Parthenon with its surrounding buildings. It was very interesting to finally see all the things that we have learned and talked about in school all these years.

This is the first modern day Olympic Stadium located in Athens.

The one, the only, the Parthenon!

Our last night! We got to experience Greek life in real Greek fashion - we went to dinner and a show where everyone sang and danced in Greek. We even got all dressed up for it!

Day 13: Trip home! Our first flight (which was supposed to be to Frankfurt, Germany) was delayed which would have meant that we would miss our flight to Chicago forcing us to stay another night. So after some quick switching around, we were rushed onto a flight to Munich and then to Chicago, where we are now. In all this hustle and bustle a lot of luggage was lost - mine included. It took the original path to Frankfurt. Oops.

All in all, our European adventure was a lot more than I could have ever expected it to be. Everything about it was incredible. 

notes from europe (part II)

Continuing on:

Day 6: This day we went to Pompei. It was incredible to see how well preserved everything was and to realize the real archeological gold mine this little city is. After exploring all the ruins Pompei had to offer, it was off to the coast to board a ferry to head to Greece.

This picture was taken in downtown Pompei

Day 7: After sleeping on a boat for the first time in my life (I did very well by the way. Turns out I have a pretty strong stomach or something), we loaded on a bus and headed up to Delphi. On the way we stopped at a beach and played in the Mediterranean Sea for a couple hours. Everything about it was beautiful and so much fun! Delphi was such a cute little town and we thoroughly enjoyed being able to explore all over – we found this cute little café that we spent hours at eating ice cream, playing on the computer, and laughing together.

Yay for the Mediterranean Sea!

Day 8: After our day in Delphi, we went into Athens. We kind of just had a free day to hang up and catch up on some sleep. It was much needed. Before we left Delphi however, we were able to visit the temple of Apollo.

Day 9: Early this morning we went and got on board a cruise of the Greek Islands. I have never been on a cruise before so it was definitely a good experience! Our first stop of the cruise experience was at Mykenos. It is a cute little island where all the buildings are white. They say that they painted everything that way so that pirates would get confused when they were trying to raid and pillage the little villages. I can see how that would be very effective. Also this day we spend a lot of time under the sun working on our tans (or sunburns in my case...)

Everything is white!

Day 10: Day two of the cruise was very similar to day one. Our stop this day was at Patmos. We were able to get off the ship and play on the beach. Britt and I made it a point (along with a few other people from our party) to swim out to the little lighthouse/buoy thing. We didn't realize quite how far out it was until we were trying to swim back. It felt good to be able to go for a good swim though! And on the Mediterranean Sea nonetheless!

Fresh from swimming...

notes from europe

Here are finally some pictures from my European adventure!

Day 1/2: we traveled. A lot. Clear across the world in fact. After arriving at our hotel we basically ate and crashed.

This picture was taken in the airport in Rome. Apparently this area is reserved? Right in front of baggage claim? I don't know.

Day 3: Rome! We were able to explore Rome with our group as kind of a free day. It was fun, but without being completely current on my Roman history, day 4 turned out to be way more interesting.

An actual picture that I took of the Pantheon!

Day 4: Again, we toured around Rome. We saw various places such as the Pantheon, Fontana di Trevi, the Roman Forum, and the Coleseum. It was pretty much amazing! We took tons of pictures and had SOOO much fun!

The Coliseum!

Making our wishes at Fontana di Trevi

Day 5: More touring around Italy. This day we went to the Isle of Capri. It was BEAUTIFUL! We walked all around the whole island. I love the island environment. It actually reminded me of a more expensive, European version of Hawaii. Weird I know. haha.

The beautiful Island of Capri.

time zones

It is currently 6:20 in Chicago, which is where I spent the night. 

I have been awake since 4:30-ish. We are talking wide awake here.

In Athens, it is 2:30 in the afternoon. 

It would seem that I am going to have a fun time readjusting to the proper time zone.

Besides all that, I am once again stateside! The last two weeks were so much fun! I learned so much and was able to see so many things. Also, because my little excursion included a 3 day cruise, I am slightly tanner (only so much due to my amazingly white skin. haha.). I can't believe that we were gone for a full 2 weeks. It seems like it was so much longer, but at the same time it is really weird that life continued on without me here in Utah.  I am definitely excited to be home though. 

I have to go eat breakfast and catch my flight to Salt Lake, but I will post some pictures later and share the amazingness that is Italy and Greece with you! Maybe I'll do it in the wee hours of the morning tomorrow... (hopefully not though)

chicago o'hare

My European adventure has officially begun! We are currently hanging out in the Chicago O'Hare airport and have been for three full hours. In a short two and a half hours we head off to Munich, Germany then onto our connecting flight to ROME! Yay for becoming world travellers!

And, p.s., Sister and I created a joint blog to document all of our adventures now and in the future. The address for it is tiffandbritt.blogspot.com. If I am a slacker at posting on this blog, be sure to check that one out! You should probably check it out anyways.

welcome to hematology

Last week I started the last rotation of my internship! Hooray!

My last area happens to be hematology (which I am loving by the way). In hematology, the Med Techs assist the Pathologists with bone marrow biopsies. As a student, that means that I get to go along too. On Monday, I attended my first and second biopsies. Also on Monday, I came dangerously close to passing out for the first time ever. Allow me to explain.

Here is a quick run down on bone marrow biopsies: the Pathologist cuts into your skin above the superior inferior iliac crest (essentially the back of your hip bone). He/she then twists a big needle into your bone until they are the middle of it. At that point they pull out some bone marrow, then go back in with a bigger needle in order to get a piece of the bone to look at.

Bone marrow #1: Success. I watched with no problems and everything went smoothly.

Bone marrow #2: Not quite as successful. Getting the bone marrow was no problem, it was the piece of bone that was a little more difficult. During this biopsy, I was standing right next to the doctor helping to hold the patient stationary. I got to see EVERY twist and turn that he made. After about four times of going in to try and get a piece of the bone, I started to feel a little light headed. The fifth time, it got considerably worse. When he went in for a sixth time I couldn't take it anymore. I had to quickly leave the patient's side and walk to the stool at the back of the OR. It only kept getting worse after I sat down. I felt the blood drain from my face and started to get a cold sweat. Not a good sign if I wanted to remain conscious. I decided that I needed to lie down. I got up, walked to the OR doors so that I could lie down on the floor outside of the room. Naturally, since an OR is supposed to be sterile, opening and closing of the doors is regulated. I didn't think about that little fact. At this point, black started closing in on me. Luckily, one of the OR techs saw my plight and was able to open the door in time for me to make it out without passing out. A cold, hard hospital floor has never felt as good as it did in that moment.

I thought that I had a pretty tough stomach, but apparently some things can get to me (don't worry, I will spare you of any gruesome details).

Thankfully, I was able to avoid hitting my head or dropping to the floor. And, I can still say that I have never passed out - although, I was right on the brink this time.

I will probably never live this moment down so long as I work at Utah Valley Hospital.

vay-cay!

There are only 9 days left until I leave the country.

Soon I will be exploring the Italian and Greek country sides - learning, playing on beaches, and frolicking around with my sister for two full weeks! I get to do touristy things, take lots of pictures, and see all sorts of historical places.

It is going to be pretty much amazing. 

I can hardly even wait!

let the games begin

I have officially registered and everything for my half marathon. The papers have been mailed in and the fees paid. There is no turning back now!

August 8th here I come!

Since it is official and all, I have also officially begun my training. 

Let me give you a little background on my running experience. I have hated running my whole life - really hated it. I am slightly asthmatic and not terribly athletically inclined. Running was always hard for me and was a lot of work. One of my new year's resolutions this year was to become a runner. I started out slow, just like you are supposed to, and I have been constantly working up. 

They say the first 2 miles are the hardest to get, but after that it gets increasingly easier to add on more miles. I would have to agree.  After I got the first 2 miles down, 3 miles and even 4 miles came without too much more effort. 

I think the milestone that no one mentions anything about is 5 miles. I ran 5 miles today for the first time ever. I was expecting it to be just like the last two miles that I had added on - relatively easy and strenuous in a good way, only adding on more time. Boy was I wrong! I was panting and wheezing 2 miles in. I did finish, but it was way more hard work than I expected to be. 

Now that I have reached that milestone, hopefully the next big ones will come too. And next time, I won't be expecting it to be a simple 6 mile run! 

Luckily, I have been increasing my endurance over the last few months so I can happily report that I am not going to give up simply because I had a hard day's run. 

I will conquer!

i feel adventurous

Every weekday for the last 4 weeks I have been carpooling up to Salt Lake as part of my internship (only one more week left!). When the weather is good or at least decent, there are almost always paragliders at the point of the mountain. Every day I watch them glide from the top of the mountain to the bottom. This has inspired me to want to learn how to paraglide. I think that it would be the most amazing experience to just be floating in the air! Call me crazy, I know.

So, I have recently done some research into paragliding. Turns out that you can take lessons and have a full day of paragliding. The small problem is that it costs around $125. But, I will not let that not deter me from my paragliding dream. My brother who is WAAAAY more adventurous than I am (he is perhaps the reason that I am as adventurous as I am now...) is going to go with me, there is a good possibility that my sister will go with us too (depending on age restrictions). Sometime before the end of the summer I will go paragliding!

Another adventurous thing that I am getting myself into this summer is running a half marathon. Anyone who has known me anytime in my life has probably started laughing out loud at this point and thinking something along the lines of:

"Tiffany, a runner? What? You must be kidding me."

Well, friends, I am doing it for reals. The big event is in the middle of August. I have been doing some basic training for the last few months and I officially started my half marathon training this last week. And it is going great! I never thought that I would say this, but I honestly LOVE running! Who knew how much fun it could be?

blame the pigs

Dear Swine Flu,

As laboratory personel, I feel that it is my responsibility to let you know of the great increase of work that you have provided us. We have nearly as many influenza tests in the last few days as we did during the whole month of January - when normal flu season is is full swing. You have also caused the phone to keep ringing off the hook with all sorts of questions about testing for you; including things like how to collect samples (which I don't know-all I do is run the tests!) and how long it takes.

I would personally like to thank you for ensuring that I am not bored at work.

I would also like to thank you for the job security.

Finally, I would like to ask that you don't get any more severe and try your very hardest to avoid mutations of any kind. I'm sure that the general public would appreciate that as well.

Love,
Tiffany

i bake things

I am on this kick recently in which I bake things - lots of things on a regular basis. For example, on Monday I made Easter Eggs (which taste like Mound's Bars on steroids according to Lauren) and chocolate cookies. I did the same thing last week, and the week before I made amazing peanut better cookies topped with a Hershey's Kiss and banana chocolate chip muffins. When I get bored, I look up recipes on line to see other kinds of goodies that I can bake. I don't really know what is driving me to do this. haha.

The problem is that I only live with one other girl and we don't eat a whole lot of goodies (not to mention that she tends to bake too...). So I feed my baked goods to friends and people I know. 

Moral of the story: if you want anything baked or any sort of treat just let me know and I am more likely than not to have something for you! 

And, as a side note, this is my 6th blog of the month. I think that is a new record for me. 

the after party

After convocation on Friday, us moldy-oldies (that is what we call ourselves in the CLS program when we have made it to the point that we are in our internship) decided that we needed to have one last hurrah before we all went our separate ways into the world. Initially we thought that we wanted to go to the Cheesecake Factory (avoid the Provo graduation crowds, and who doesn't like cheesecake, really?). But when we got there to try and reserve a seat for 20 people, the wait was 3 hours long. No thank you! So instead we went to the Olive Garden across the parking lot. We all still had a fabulous time since it was the company that we were going for, not the venue.

This is what 3 cups of diet coke will do to you! Don't worry though, I was right there with Cherie on the 3 diet cokes thing. haha.

We have had so much fun, stress, laughter, anger, and shared sweat, blood, and tears among other things over the last year or so. You tend to grow pretty close to people that you spend 7 hours a day with 5 days a week.

This was our version of an after party, BYU style! (or something like that...)

We had to have one final outing. Besides, who else would talk about blood tests and Salmonella Typhi with us over dinner?