Cell Phone Trauma

Here's a little synopsis of a traumatic event involving my cell phone yesterday evening. it took a little swim, causing me great angst. I decided to post this, b/c...no real reason, but now that's it's been resolved, it's kinda funny. 

Here's the email I frantically sent to many of my phone contacts. Entitled: My Phone went Swimming 

Hey everyone. So...I just dropped my phone in water. and I don't mean it just got a little wet. i mean it actually went swimming. oops. anyhow, now my life has come to a screeching halt b/c I'm pretty sure I've lost several years worth of phone numbers (most of which I haven't actually memorized). if you would like me to have your phone number again, please email me, and if you've been looking for a way to cut off ties, now would be a good time. ;) Thanks.

After being panicked for a while. I realized there was only one or two of my contacts with whom I'd lose contact without my phone,  and that there are many people in my contact list I don't really even talk to anymore...or I can just find on Facebook. Well, here's some of the responses I got:

Oh drat!

Phones aren't good swimmers!

Never thought of such a great way of getting rid of records of those who don't get in touch.... which models of phone... what body of water, how deep, for how long,...what temperature: may consider doing the same!

Noooo! That is so sad.

awww, sorry to hear that, did you try turning it on, if not let it sit for a few days to dry out all the moisture before turning it on, then again i think you wanted a new phone anyway.

Poor Caitlin's phone! I'm sure it lived a very full life, even if its dream of being an Olympic swimmer went unfulfilled.

Sorry about your aquatic phone!!! What a bummer!

Caitlin, you goof!

And here's the "scratch that first one" email when I realized all was not lost. Entitled: Resurrection Phone

well...it must be christmas. after the surgical procedure i performed on my phone (i.e removing the battery, memory card, and sim card) and allowing it to dry out, the prognosis was 50/50. (it was touch and go for a while. as it crackled and sputtered, i shouted orders left and right: nurse! give me 10mg of Morphine, STAT! (i don't even know if that's the right dose, but i think i got the other rights--drug, route, time, patient), oh wait, i was the nurse...not the mention the surgeon, anesthesiologist, and physician's assistant, as i battled the water alone. just kidding.) would it survive the night and be able to recover from the evening's trauma, and if it did, would it recover fully or have permanent scars. or, would the damage be too substantial for life as a phone knows it rendering it "brain dead" (would that be microchip-dead? well, whatever it'd be, i mean a loss of vital functional abilities). i figured the latter would be more likely as i imagined how the water would have infiltrated the inner-workings of the phone and taken all my contacts under siege, ripping names from numbers, creating havoc and washing them away into oblivion (as is likely to happen to seattle when all this snow melts!). now just think if i'd dropped it in salt water! that damage may resemble an immune response where the macrophages/salt (who eat up and digest material to destroy) just start chewing up phone numbers, while i watched helplessly... "ack! wait! that was my cousin! oh no. there goes my best friend!  uhhh...who's that next one? oh, you can eat that one, i don't even know that person!" 

ok, where was i going with this...oh. this morning, my tachycardic heart (ok, that's maybe a little dramatic, i wasn't really that nervous), i dared to assess the previous night's potentially life-saving interventions and replaced the guts of the phone, said a prayer, took a deep breath, and pushed that little red button i had taken for granted so often before. after a few seconds, the screen came on. it survived extubation and was breathing on it's own, but would it wake up? to find out, i had to select "phonebook" and hope my contacts would appear. here was the real defining moment. another deep breath.........................oh my gosh! is it true?!?! was i hallucinating? there in front of me i saw contact after contact. listed just as i'd remembered! friends, bosses, relatives, people i haven't talked to in years, other random numbers...people near and far....all there! the final test would be to make a call. i was so gleeful i didn't care what happened now, it didn't matter if the phone actually worked, i had my contacts and life could continue.

as it turns out, the call went through and all is well with me and my resurrection phone. it made a solid recovery, though some evidence of that treacherous night remain. the screen wallpaper looks like clouds, i can't seem to check my voicemail d/t the # button not working correctly, and it has developed some form of cell phone Turrets and beeps erratically during calls.

all this just to say, you don't have to email me your numbers anymore. i've got it covered. 

Thanks and Merry Christmas, etc!

Sweet Relief

Friday, 12 December 2008, 09:25am. Finals over. Brain checked out. Quarter 1 of nursing school complete, I hope...grades pending.

Now, off to guilt-free TV watching and doing nothing remotely productive.

Skills, skills, skills.

I was thinking maybe I should talk about something nursing related in this post, since I have not so much as even thought about even thinking about posting something for quite some time now, and b/c my last few posts seem to have as much to do with nursing as Ludifisk has to do with Tibetan Monks. 

As of late, a fair amount has happened in my small, but rapidly proliferating, world of nursing. 

1) IM injection (flu shot). Not really too difficult, just "throw it like a dart"...though it is possible for the needle to sort of, "bounce" out of the pt's arm if all the planets line up. And that's all I'll say about that (don't wanna break HIPPA regs).

2) Glucometer. Well, it didn't hurt me. This procedure was uneventful. This is the finger prick to test blood glucose for people /c Diabetes.

3) Rectal Suppository. Clearly my favorite thus far (I don't know how to express sarcasm in writing, but that was an attempt). This one was for constipation. Real easy to give...unless your client's just not havin' it. Technically, pt should be in Sim's position (lying on left side), and then you deposit the suppository. It is just medication injected into a wax "bullet" so it dissolves pretty quickly and then you wait 30mins or so for the receipt (i.e. a BM). Wow, that's an interesting way to explain it.

4) Staple removal. This woman, well into her 80s, had a Right femur Fx, I think, and her staples were ready to be removed (generally 10-14 days /p surgery). This was an interesting experience. I didn't actually get to remove the staples, just observed...which in this instance, I was perfectly okay with. The client was not thrilled, to say the least, about having her staples removed, though she didn't know that at first. Everything started out well. She was calm and cooperative. We told her it would hurt a little...but then the nurse removed the first staple: "OW THAT HURT! WHAT ARE YOU DOING? YOU STOP THAT!", same with the 2nd one.

Total staples: 15-20 staples (incision basically knee to hip). Total tolerance: zero. 

Then, "Oh Lord, please make them stop. Don't let them hurt me anymore!" In the most pitiful voice you have ever heard. You would have thought we were ruthlessly torturing her. After about 5 or 6 staples and one that was harder to pull out and had some skin grown around it, she'd really had enough and resorted to threats and violence: while swinging her fist at or pounding the nurse's shoulder, "YOU STOP THAT! I'M GOING TO KNOCK YOUR TEETH DOWN YOUR THROAT! YOU STOP THAT RIGHT NOW!" We tried to distract her, but no use: "S____, it looks like the weather is going to be nice for a few days." her response: "Oh yes, I hope so...YOU STOP THAT! I'M GOING TO KNOCK YOU TEETH DOWN YOUR THROAT! COVER ME UP! I'M COLD! STOP THAT! Oh God, I'm praying, please don't let them hurt me anymore. I'm too old for this."

Science @ Its Best

Didn't think a shrimp could run? Guess again! Apparently, some Marine Bio students at OSU are doing some sort of study on shrimp and water pollution or something and I don't really know how this "treadmill shrimp" came to be, but it serves as good entertainment.

And this relates to nursing because...ummm...oh ja, it's research, which is a part of nursing practice. right.

A Waste of Good Brain

Yesterday was our first real clinical day. For this quarter we're in a nursing home (I figure this is b/c we're less likely to kill people in a nursing home than if we were in an acute setting - i.e. an ER). Though at this point, working in a nursing home is not my first choice, I am grateful to be in a more relaxed setting. It makes it easier to focus on remembering what your supposed to be doing rather than launching us into the chaos & stress of imminent death.

So, clinical is good. We shadowed the CNAs today so we could get to know our residents and their needs. I helped with bathing, dressing, and feeding residents, took some vitals, listened to a woman's lungs who had COPD (Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease). The base of her L lung had crackles on inspiration. 

I also got to talk to some of the residents for a while. The unit I'm in is for those residents who are further along with dementia (i.e. they need more assistance w/ADLs (Activities of Daily Living), their trains of thought and speech are a little more scattered, etc).  What is really amazing (and sad) is the number of these people who have so many accomplishments in their lives. Many of them were nurses, one was a pastor (and he repeats the word "church" all the time), one has a degree in Mechanical Engineering from Texas A&M, another went to Harvard, some others from UW MedSchool (one woman was I think one of the first three woman graduates from UW MedSchool), one woman was an army nurse in WWII in France, and she cared for both the French & US soldiers. She has a photo in her room with all her pins & badges around it, and she has so many! The CNA said she would have been one you would salute. It's

 really sad to see how many really good brains are just dissolving away here. All that knowledge and intellect is just disintegrating into disarray and nonsense.

Here's a little info about Dementia/Alzheimer's:

As people progress through Dementia (Alzheimer's is one of the most common forms of Dementia), their brain just deteriorates, particularly in the memory and language centers. As they get further along, they begin to stop talking. Finding the correct words becomes more difficult, so they get frustrated and just stop. Eventually, they only talk if they have something really important to say...so you'd better listen!  

                                      

P.S. Those holes/gaps in the brain are bad. No wonder people with dementia have trouble with memory & language...there are just chunks missing, like when you pick pieces out of a pie you're not supposed to eat. Well, I tried to Google for a pic of a pie that shows what I mean, but no real luck. Not b/c there aren't photos of partially eaten pies online...there are pages & pages. I mean, My goodness! Why the heck do people post photos of partially eaten pies?!?!?! That's just gross and bizarre if you ask me...so I found a lung cancer steak instead b/c it's just as gross...well maybe a litter nastier. Looks like a tasty steak (minus the tumor. I think that's a tumor. Anyway, it looks like it shouldn't be there.), but I'd rather not have that as my source of O2 exchange.

     

                       

Talking to some of the residents who are in further stages of dementia, it was actually rather difficult, not really because they were having trouble finding words, or because they don't make sense much of the time, but just because you don't really know how to respond. We're taught to just enter into the world of that person with dementia; don't contradict or correct what they say, but just go along with it. So, if a resident asks you if you voted for Nixon in the election on Tuesday, rather than correcting them and saying, "you mean Obama or McCain?", which will just confuse them because their memory doesn't support immediate events as well as long-past events, you just respond "oh, yes. I voted for Nixon." or whatever statement you think will best satisfy them and their question. But I feel like this is hard to do (at least for me anyway). It took me a while to be able go along with it. I found it difficult basically telling straight lies or not validating the truth. When I was talking to a woman yesterday, she asked me "are we all going to the picnic or are just you going?" And of course my immediate thought is "what picnic?" Then I had to quickly remember the condition of the person to whom I'm talking and come up with an anwser. However, the difficult part was that I found myself trying to give as truthful of an answer as possible. So I would say: "I don't think I'm going to the picnic." I don't really know why I didn't just say: "Yes, I'm going too.", because the probability is that she would have forgotten about the supposed picnic and been onto another topic with a minute or so, but it was just weird. It was that Lutheran guilt creeping up on me...thanks Dad.

Oooh, another thing. There was an event. One of the residents is always very concerned about people and wants to make sure no one is being harmed. During breakfast, he saw some of the CNAs helping feed the residents, and this set him off. He was convinced that we were hurting them, and proceeded to somewhat aggressively herd all the staff out of the dining room. He then barricaded the entry and would not allow anyone in or out. When one staff member said, "But Mrs. Jones needs to eat breakfast", he simply stated, "No. No one can come in or out." This went on for a while, until someone finally redirected him by suggesting that he go shave (which he had just finished doing, but he really likes to shave, so he went willingly and breakfast continued without further interruption).

Initiative 1000

Initiative 1000.  Assisted suicide.  Clearly pertinent to nursing.  Coming from a nursing/health care perspective, I think it makes it even more difficult to figure out what I should think about this b/c in some capacity I will be involved in situations where assisted suicide could be a possibility.  

There's the side of "first do no harm" and the point being to save lives, not end them.  But then there's also the whole thing about the patient's needs coming first, doing everything in your power to help the patient, but in the end, not letting him/her suffer.  So what do you do?  Allow a person to end their life prematurely (i.e. even more prematurely than the illness is already taking them), or require that they continue living until the illness/disease takes them. But then again, it's still suicide, making the conscious decision to end your own life, often not seen as a good idea.  

But what about the people who discontinue life support or choose not to receive treatments for cancer, for example.  We don't consider that suicide, just their choice to not endure the hardships of treatment. But in an indirect way, that's technically kind of suicide too because the person (and/or family) is making a decision to either end the person's life or discontinue efforts to sustain life.  But don't get me wrong, I'm not trying to argue that choosing not to endure intensive cancer treatment is dishonorable or sacrilegious or even suicide, but if you really break it down to the elements, in some ways it's a form of assisted suicide, someone (other than God, or science, or whatever) is making the conscious decision to discontinue life, usually based on suffering (i.e. the suffering one may endure through chemo treatments outweighs the benefits of the treatment, so dying sooner, but happier and healthier sounds more appealing).  So, is this assisted suicide initiative, in fact, somewhat similar to a patient choosing not to accept treatment?  I presume that the person choosing assisted suicide is doing so to minimize suffering, time spent in hospitals, and other various burdens (on family, friends, etc, including financial burdens).  If that be the case, I support it.  I don't see that as a cop-out, but rather as a similar decision to "I would rather not endure intensive treatments which will significantly decrease my quality of life".  

But in the end, I don't really know.  How can you really regulate what conditions are eligible for assisted suicide?  So, if it is strictly for medical conditions, terminal illnesses, what about psychological conditions, severe depression, etc.  If you let people end their lives because they are depressed, that's just "regular" (illegal) suicide, but you also can't disregard psychological conditions as medical issues.  But maybe you could say that some physical conditions are not treatable under Western Medicine, and that say, depression, you can "get over" or treat with anti-depressants/anti-psychotics, etc, but maybe you can't "cure" a person with depression and it will "kill" them one way or another. Maybe not physically kill them, but reduce his/her quality of life to the point that it may not be worth living.  So then if depression and terminal cancer both decrease a person's quality of life that much, then they're the same thing and should/could both qualify for assisted suicide.  But I'm also not trying to say that people with depression should just throw in the towel and commit suicide, b/c maybe they can be helped. Maybe the real question is, whether talking about physical conditions or mental/emotional conditions, when is enough, enough? My goodness, my brain is tired now. I will have to think about this more later.   

Saved by Critical Thinking

Oh, by the way, I think I forgot to mention the daily emotional roller coaster nursing school has been so far. I feel like I go between "ay caramba! I'm gonna die!" and "nailed it!" six times a day. This post reflects the latter. (I wonder if this is what pregnancy is like?!...or...gasp...Menopause!) Much to my relief, I think I'm stabilizing a bit now. And the whole, "read the boxes" concept for getting through all the 16 or so textbooks helps considerably. So, contrary to my last post, I'm now thinking: Hey, maybe I can do this! Supporting evidence below:

Exam 1 result: 92% sweet!!!

Hand hygiene, PPE (personal protective equipment), vitals, SPHM (safe pt handling & movement), ace wrap & TED hose application, O2 admin: CHECK! :)

BP checkout: killed it! (Clinical instructor comments: "good speed", meaning I released the pressure in the sphygmomanometer (BP cuff) correctly, and got the right reading.

IM admin: excellent across the board!

Blood Glucose check: nailed it!

Med. Admin.: fumble, fumble, fumble through.............pass. phew. That was a rough one. Try not to have brain farts when you're preparing meds. Aspirin is NOT acetaminophen, Einstein. That's an easy one! And furosemide does have a Brand name, and it's called Lasix®, Lanoxin® is digoxin, silly. (luckily my brain kicked in prior to actually giving it to the pt). In my defense, when you're being critiqued and your brain is on lunch break, anything could be acetaminophen! But honestly Caitlin, if you're going to give someone nitropaste, studies show it's most effective if you actually apply it to the patient, rather than just leaving it on the table. My goodness! But luckily was saved by good critical thinking skills and identified everything I did wrong and said how I would do it differently next time.

I found this rap to remind me about the 5 Rights of Medication:

Now I just have to knock the socks off Morning Care checkout & head-to-toe phys assessment.

Ooh, funny thing. This one girl's fingers were really cold and white, and she asked another girl what she would do to warm them up and improve circulation, and she answered very matter-of-factly: put them in the microwave and turn it on.

(...don't worry, she was joking).

Just for fun, I liked this video:

4th Week Masters?

Unfortunately, it's been a while since I've posted because I think the world has started spinning faster lately. Anyhow, we are now just completing week 4 of the quarter and preparing to start Clinicals. In Practicum, we've "mastered" (and by mastered, I mean bumbling through like.....):

*general assessment
*heart, lung, & bowel sounds
*vitals (BP, Pulse, Respirations, Temp)
*making an occupied/unoccupied bed:

*turning & transferring a patient from bed-chair, etc
*bed baths (clean to dirty, folks!)
*oral care, dressing a resident/client/pt, feeding a resident (it's actually harder than it looks b/c when you do it on classmates, you start laughing too much & spill the water! and trying to pull pants onto a partially paralyzed person who's sitting is super hard!)
*peri care (that means cleaning the nether regions--clean to dirty, front to back, inside to out)
*medication administration (don't forget the 6 Rights! That'd be right pt, time, drug, dose, route, documentation!)
*checking blood glucose...on a banana (b/c we're not allowed to poke our classmates, or ourselves). 1st reading looks goofy? (too low/high) recheck. 2nd reading the same? panic! no, just kidding...report to the doc, so she/he can panic...
*IM (intramuscular) injections on some sort of 'realistic' squishy pad (don't forget: IM-deltoid: 2-3 fingers widths below the acromial process, and throw it (the needle) like you're playing darts in a bar...well, not quite that hard and w/o the influence of alcohol.

And after all this learning, the confidence meter reads:
*going through all the steps in my head or on a classmate = probably 8-9
*on a resident who might be in pain, or heavy, or paralyzed, or not able to communicate well, or grumpy = 2.

Watch out folks...here we come! Well, in all honesty, we're actually doing really well. I think it will be much better when we get to our Clinical site & see what it's actually like. Then I'm sure my confidence will be at least, at least...2.5

We have head-to-toe physical assessments & Morning Care checkouts next week, so we better be 4th Week Masters by now...riiiight.

A Variation in Nursing Massage

Today in class we learned the importance of incorporating massage into patient care. Older adults (especially) in long-term care (LTC) facilities (e.g. nursing homes) don't often receive adequate physical contact, which is essentially vital to human life (not in the same way as water, but people are made to have physical contact with one another. So, a person deprived of physical touch will likely suffer some physical, mental, and emotional repercussions (maybe feelings of neglect, worthlessness, low-self esteem, loneliness, etc)

Anyhow, we're learning to give massage, and we watched this video which illustrated "proper" massage technique...

Next time you're a resident (i.e. you live there) in a Long-term Care facility...consider asking your nurse why he/she is not in a gorilla suit.

We Were Supposed to Read that too...?

So, I go to bed Sunday night feeling happier than I've been for a while b/c guess what?!? I finished all my reading and homework, and am prepared, this week, for doing a little extra studying, going for a run or two, catching up on this blog, watching Grey's, and going to bed early...

Just Kidding! Monday morning arrives and the prof says, "So, you've all read the (8 million) chapters assigned for today..." and the first thing I think is: "8 million?!?!?! I thought there were only 4 million this weekend?!?!" (looking at my syllabus) "we were supposed to read that too??? Fiddlesticks!"

So, basically, I'm coding (medical term essentially meaning you're going to die if someone doesn't hustle-up and save you). No longer on my "prepared for the week" high, I returned to dwelling in the land of "chronically behind with schoolwork"...Do they have a pill for that? hmmm...I think we start pharmacology next week, so maybe I'll ask/learn about that then. But for now, how about some ice cream...

PhD in Procrastination

Our first theory exam looms overhead (i.e. Monday), so miraculously, I've exercised, cooked, and cleaned more this weekend than I have in the past month. It all has to do with "The Art of Procrastination". I guess I don't really need to write an entry on this since anyone who's ever been a college student likely holds a PhD in Procrastination (I know I do) along with whatever degree they went to school for. However, since the saying goes "use it or lose it" (and I certainly wouldn't want to lose a PhD), I might as well delve into the world of "doing everything but...".

There are only a few simple steps to successful procrastination. Please see below:

1) Have a motto or mission statement: the motto I live by is: "you gotta do what you gotta do, to not do what you gotta do"...and the mission: "striving for procrastination excellence: putting others before oneself (demonstrating compassion and selflessness) by caring for the needs of others and ensuring the world in which we live is cleaner, tidier, and happier.

2) identify that which has to (not) be done (i.e. study for an exam, write a research paper, etc)

3) identify everything else in the world that could (and should) be done before item #2. Remember, in successful procrastination, everything is more important and more urgent than the said item #2. This includes: cleaning (can't study in filth!), exercise (in hopes of getting lood moving to the brain), napping (to ensure you're adequately rested before studying), providing "moral support" to friends in need of social interaction, organizing of any sort (your notes, dresser drawers, the kitchen cabinets...).

It appears that a few people feel the way I do, and have posted their thoughts on YouTube. Here's one:

Follow these simple steps, and subsequently begin adding the letters "PhD" after your name*

*NOTE: please do not actually write "PhD" after your name in any context where people might take this seriously, b/c I think this is actually illegal unless you have a degree from an accredited institution...now don't tell me I didn't warn you!

Homework Again!?! You Have GOT to be Kidding Me!

Week 1 of Nursing School now complete.  phew!  I'm counting this as a week of successes.  By Wednesday, I had pretty much recovered from the initial shock and stress of being told that between class and homework we would be spending almost 80 hours per week with school...and were subsequently told "remember to be good role models for your patients and eat right, sleep, exercise, and leave time to relax".  Excuse me?!?!  When are we supposed to do all that???  I know, maybe I can improve my multi-tasking: while taking a patient's vitals, I'll jog in place, while simultaneously eating a salad, and I'll invite some friends so I can relax at the same time...I'm sure my patient will understand...

Here's what I've learned so far: 

1. How'd YOU like to be called "Geriatric"?!?!  I didn't think so..."Older Adults" (O.A.'s) is the current PC term.  Somewhat contrarily (I think), the official terms for the various age groups of O.A.'s are - 65-74: young old (fair enough); 75-84: middle old (still not too bad); 85-94: old old (do we really need to say it twice?); and 95+: oldest old (a little excessive, don't you think?).  How are these supposed to make people feel better?  You might as well call them "spring chick of the old folks", "you've had better days", "really wouldn't wanna be stuck behind you in a grocery store aisle", and "haven't your organs shut down yet?"...I think I'd prefer Geriatric... And besides, it's called "Gerontology" anyway.  Not really fooling anyone the term "O.A.", or else they should call it "Olderadultentology".

2. Florence Nightingale had a hand in sabotaging the Nursing profession by allowing only women to enroll in her program.  As a result (and a lot of history and other factors later), many men are disinclined to become nurses, which is unfortunate because I'm sure all the men in Nursing are delighted by the question: "How long have you been a male nurse?" -- "Well, I've been a male since the X met the Y.  As for Nursing, I've been in the profession for ___ years."  (unless there's been a gender reassignment, in which case the format of this question may be perfectly appropriate).  The point being: no need to point out that he's a male...since anatomy is a prerequisite for Nursing, he likely already knows.

3. Using a Hydraulic Lift to move a patient from, say, a bed to a wheelchair, you don't even need to remove the lifting device for them to use the restroom because it doesn't contact the perineum!  Here's what the lift looks like.  Enjoy the music: YouTube - UNILIFT Ceiling Mounted Lift

Here Begins the Rest of My Life...

Well, I'm about to say 'goodbye' to life as I now know it.  Monday begins my new journey of Nursing School.  With a Bachelor's degree already in my pocket, I'm slightly reluctant to delve into the world of classes, homework, and tests yet again...but excited that in 2 short (or possibly, long) years, I'll be on my way to a career I hope will satisfy my professional goals (...and fiscal requirements).  The road has been a bit long and tedious getting here, but the time spent has been worth while.

I've got mixed feelings about this whole thing: totally excited to be closer to my desired career, anxious if I'll be able to manage the work load (and frankly, dreading it), irritated by all the nit-picky things that have to be done before I start (paperwork, appointments, etc), and overwhelmed by the expense of it all.  My new school will for sure be a culture shock...from about 4,500 in my class, to a school with a total student population of less than 4,000, it will be different, but good...I think.

Monday morning begins bright and early, 0730.  (Nursing Theory at 0730?!?!? Somebody better be entertaining, b/c that's way too early for theory, if you ask me).  Sounds like a SnoozeFest, but I'm optimistic that I'm wrong (which I often am--wrong, that is--and I'm predicting me being wrong will increase exponentially over the next little bit.  Hopefully to level off before I accidently kill (too many) people)...

I'm not really sure how this blog is going to work yet, but I am hoping to update it frequently with fun facts, stories, and maybe even some pix (hopefully some good juicy ones).

Ay caramba, it's Saturday, 27 September!  Real life's about to end and I'm sitting here posting this blog!?!?!?  Shoot, I better get out there and enjoy it while I can.  Adios.