Sparsely Critical

The art of attracting migratory songbirds is one that I have never participated in.  However, the same cannot be said for my mom.  I have to admit that I do enjoy the occasional oriole sighting, as they are only around for about a week each Spring.  After spotting a pair of orioles in our yard, my mom cut up some oranges and put them outside on our deck.

The effectiveness of attracting the orioles was apparent within 10 minutes of placing them outside.  At one moment, there were five orioles pecking the oranges at the same time.  It made us all wonder who decided to feed oranges to orioles, or how orioles discovered freshly sliced oranges.  Of course this is not what I want to focus on for this particular post.  It’s too much of a which came first question, and the jury is still out on the chicken vs. the egg.

Back to the orioles.  They enjoyed the oranges so much that the fruit slices were quickly picked clean and thrown from the deck by the ungrateful birds.  Much to my mother’s disappointment, we were officially fresh out of oranges.  However, we did have some grapefruits that were at risk of getting old.  They also looked surprisingly similar to their brighter orange counterparts.  Perhaps making a grapefruit offering to the birds would please them?!

The sliced grapefruit was put on the deck, and the orioles returned.  However, they would taste one slice of the fruit and quickly move onto the next slice until they had tasted each slice (this was very amusing to watch).  The look of disgust was apparent on their snobby bird faces.  How dare we poison them with this bitter fruit.  They left in protest, not to be seen again.  As far as I’m concerned, they might as well not come back as they’re certainly not welcome here.  Far too ungrateful a fowl for my taste.  No harm no [fowl]…  I know… orioles aren’t fowls, but it just worked so nicely

Every Friday morning this semester, I’ve had lab for Self-Care. The purpose of the class is to teach phuture pharmacists how to consult patients on OTC products as well as to become competent at blood pressure reading. This past Friday, however, was a bit different. Lab was separated into different stations, and one of the stations was giving subcutaneous injections. Making a long story short, I injected 1mL of normal saline into my abdomen. Read the rest of this entry »

It’s been quite a while since my last post, so I thought I’d write an update for those of you with stalker-like tendencies.

A week ago, I got back from VA where I was lucky enough to spend my Spring break with my aunt and uncle in the Cumberland Gap area. The trip to VA was just plain scary. There was a massive snowstorm blanketing Ohio with as much as 20″ of snow in some cities. I was fortunate enough to learn firsthand that Ohio neither owns nor operates snow plows. Much of I-74 was reduced to one lane in either direction, and even that lane was not nearly clear. Once I made it south of Cincinnati, the snow lightened up and the rest of the trip went smoothly. The whole trip took only 6:36, which wasn’t that bad with all things considered.

My week in VA was super relaxing, and I watched quite a few movies and took a couple of nice pictures. The scenery is spectacular in the mountains, and my uncle and I drive around taking pictures. I saw my first ever beaver-induced fallen tree. It was pretty neat. Other events from the week include my first ever viewing of a shuttle launch (NASA channel), installing Epocrates on my aunt’s PDA, and talking to a bird that was fascinated with saying “Here a quack, there a quack” over and over again.

Also, once I arrived in VA, I realized that I had forgotten my bag with my razor, contacts, glasses, and toothbrush. I learned how to shave with a razor over break as well. It wasn’t bad, but more time consuming than I would prefer. I think I’ll stick to my electric razor for the time being.

The trip back to Indy only took 6 hours, as the roads were clear and traffic was minimal. I had a great time and cannot wait to go back.

Since break, I’ve had a week of classes and Easter.  I enjoyed the nice Easter Mass on campus in the early afternoon.  What a perfect time for Mass after a fun-filled night of clubbing with friends.  It was my the first time going out to the club with a group of my friends, and it was a blast!

Sunday evening I had a very nice home-cooked meal with Shelley and Katie, her roommate.  It was much nicer than my dinner at Fazoli’s from last Easter.

Lastly, my family is currently in Mexico for my brother’s Spring break.  With the current weather outside, I do wish I were there.