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Monday, January 26, 2009

She works hard for the money.... Eeh-ehh, eeh-eeh.

So, here I am, once again gracing the clinic with my presence, offering up to leech anyone of 10 mls of blood to see if they have a chance of developing the same disease their family member has (Type 1 Diabetes).

There are two clinics in the area, clinic A and clinic B. Clinic A was visited once a month by my Coworker Left, and I covered Clinic B. However, because of the low numbers, it was decided by the doctors that we visit BOTH clinics EVERY week, and rather than have us come down here a lot, we only come Mondays and need to watch both of the clinics, easy a 15-minute drive from each other (albeit both on the same major street).

Most of the problem is with Clinic A. The physicians and staff there don't really care about recruiting so much, and in the past year (all of 2008) they have only had 3 people screened (to put in perspective: This month at our university's clinic I had 9 screened two weeks ago, and 5 last week. And these are just Wednesday afternoons, not all-day things). It makes me sad that these people want the prestige associated with this university but do not want to put forth the effort to help make it better through research.

Today I've had a few screenings already and should have some more this afternoon (two that I know of for sure anyway). As weird as this sounds, I have a fascination with blood. There's a lot of reasons for this. Holding that tube is like holding life. After all, blood is in living things, and is essential to them. There is also the idea that, when it comes down to it, we are all made up of this same stuff, so in a sense we are all the same, but that something so small makes us unique. And our uniqueness is in this warm liquid that flows through us.

OK... enough of the romanticism about blood. I feel enough like a vampire as it is. On to other stuff.

Today during lunch I went through the two bookstores; BN and the church bookstore. My one positive to covering both clinics is that, smack in between is a BN and an LDS bookstore. I hadn't set foot in a BN since before Christmas, and the last time I was at the LDS bookstore would have to be the same, but I haven't bought anything there since last October's conference. I made up for it though. I bought 6 books there, plus magazines and a framed art piece at BN that was regularly $35 but with discounts and sales it was only $7.50. It's really beautiful; a comet shooting across the sky over Stonehenge. Very cool indeed.

I had to be really selective about what books I read now. Since I'm trying to work out more, I'm bringing stuff "to do" during the workouts. I usually do the bikes and the treadmill, and have to keep my mind occupied so I don't feel so much like I'm "working out" but just enjoying myself. I've found myself bringing four things with me: my Tazmanian Devil key with the chip to unlock the gym; a book, my iPod ear buds because they have TVs attached to each piece of equipment (except for weights, of course) and a bottle of water. I do look odd in there, with ear bugs on attached to a television that I listen to, but don't really watch because I am too busy reading what's going on to Stephanie Plum, and yet I can tell you who she's hunting as well as what Paula Deen prepared on her show.

I've only been working out for a few weeks now, and although I don't have a scale to track my progress per se, I am noticing a difference. I do tend to eat less, and I feel lighter in general. I've also learned a few things, the most important being not to watch Food Network while you're working out, and to learn to stretch more to increase flexibility.

Well, enough yammering on my part. Time to start working and writing!

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