So I broke my face...

I did, but since it's been OVER A MONTH since my last post (bad Kat! BAD BAD KAT!) I'll try to give a brief update on the rest of my life.

The week following my last post I started riding my bike to work (and signed up to the bike commuter program at the U) and had a lot of trouble with the rusty stretched out chain.  On my second day riding in to work I was about to head home and noticed my rear tire was flat.  After just getting new tires last summer, I was kind of ticked.  Luckily for me there's a bike shop on campus, so I stopped in and they fixed it (replaced the tube) for like $10.  Later that week, or possibly the following week, I finally got the bike parts I ordered and hauled my bike up into the apartment and got dirty/greasy hands replacing the bike chain.  After that, the bike worked beautifully!  It's amazing what a new chain can do.  

I've also been going to the Rec Center pretty regularly (5 days last week!).  I pretty much only use the stationary bike (it's the easiest to read while doing, plus the treadmills have to be signed up to use and are generally pretty busy).  At first it was harder convincing myself to go, it's no longer on the way if I'm riding my bike!  But eventually I just made it part of my routine to do it right after work.

WW has also been going really well.  I had a few weeks where I basically stopped paying attention and ate tons of crap, but I'm back on track.  As of my last weigh in I had lost close to 20lb on the program (since Jan 17).  It's really made me start eating more fruit and less processed foods, which can only be good.

Work has been getting better - I've  had more successful experiments, but I think my boss is a little impatient with the progress.  Not that she blames me in any way (which is a delightful new experience for me) but she wants to get it done.

Okay right now I'm going to take a short break (because this is hard work you know) and go run some errands, I'll be back to finish I swear!

And I'm back - went to Half Price Books and bought some GRE prep materials (a book and some vocab flash cards) and then Petco for some rat bedding and kitten food.  When I got home Addy smelled the bag and started purring like a motorboat and nuzzling the bag.  It was adorable.

Back to my rehash of the last few weeks, a lot of biking to work, working, working out, biking home, and sitting around watching TV/Netflix.  Pretty boring stuff really.

Things of note:  On the first weekend in April I drove to Eau Claire and then Madison WI helping Megan move into her new apartment.  Long drive, but really nice apartment building.  We also took a self guided tour of her new workplace (Epic) and it is as its name implies.  The whole place is just kind of amazing. Drove back to Eau Claire with Kory on Sunday, and then home solo.

The following weekend I drove down to Rochester for Easter weekend with the family.  Also brought Addy so she could have fun with Belle (they did do some chasing around the house).  We ate tons of delicious food, had some quality family time, and I even got a chance to meet up with Jackie for a lunch at Zumbro River Cafe (good food!).

The week between driving to Madison and Easter in Rochester I decided I wanted to get a bigger TV.  I did some research on the internet, tried to decide what I wanted and how much to spend, and finally drove down the street to Target and came home with a brand new Philips 40" LED TV (with WiFi).  I love it, and am really happy I pulled the trigger.

Hung out with Sarah H (from Gustavus) while she was in town (from the UK), that was fun.  Also, last weekend on Saturday I got to hang out with Hannah (from high school) who was in town with her parents for a conference.  We watched Winter's Bone and man is that a weird messed up movie.  On Sunday Sybylla and Vicki came over and we watched Aladdin on my new TV while eating Little Caesars.

And finally to the title story.  On Thursday last week, my coworker comes up to me and asks if I would mind giving her some of my blood.  She is doing experiments with immune cells and when she uses her own blood she doesn't get very many.  However, younger blood tends to produce more, so she wanted to try mine.  I said sure, not really too worried about it since she didn't need very much.  We walked over to another building where her MD friend drew about 50ml of blood.  I sat there while it was being drawn and got a little light headed, but afterwards just kept sitting until it went away.  I felt better, so we started walking back to our building.  We headed down the hallway towards the elevator when all of a sudden I got very dizzy and next thing I know I'm waking up on the floor of the elevator with blood all over.  I had passed out and apparently landed on my face and knees.  My coworker was freaking out beside me along with a few random people I didn't know and the elevator was emitting this annoying buzz because it wanted to go to a different floor but they were holding the door open.  Eventually I sat up (while constantly apologizing) and they brought in an office chair to wheel me out of the elevator.  Apparently they had also called the U's ER who called a "Code Blue" for me.  For those of you who don't know, Code Blue is the one they call for people having a heart attack or stroke or are in immediate danger of dying.  So next thing we know 4 doctors come pouring out of a nearby elevator and start checking me over.  After a few minutes, another 8 doctors (and no, I'm not exaggerating with the numbers here) come running down the hallway (they had initially gone to the wrong Masonic building - there are two on campus).  So I'm super embarrassed because I'm not in any real danger, there's just blood pouring out of my nose, my face hurts, and I have a little headache.  They insist on taking me to the ER however, so the bring me this wheelchair (after initially threatening to get me a stretcher).  The wheelchair they brought though is in line with the rising rate of obesity in America and is practically a park bench.  Two of me could have easily sat side by side on this thing.  Finally get to the ER where another slew of doctors, medical students, and nurses come in to see the "Code Blue" patient.  After figuring out what happened though (and realizing I was not nearly exciting enough) I lost the majority of my medical staff.  I did have another EKG and the tech looked at it and asked if I was a runner or an athlete (not sure if I've ever mentioned this but the same thing happened in Rochester when I had an EKG for a research study I participated in - the woman asked if I was an athlete).  So I have an athletic heart, which is nice I think.  There was one woman who thought I must surely be pregnant (despite the 0.05% chance of that being possible) so insisted I give a urine sample.  And, irony of ironies, they drew blood to test as well.  While at the ER my boss arrived (my coworker had left once I got there and told her what happened).  She stayed the entire time I was there and even drove me home afterwards - because she's awesome.  Can you imagine my last boss being anywhere near so kind?  My sister Sara also showed up for part of the time, and thought it was ridiculous that after an hour of being there no one had offered me an ice pack for the giant lump on my forehead, busted nose, and split lip.  All in all, I was stuck at the ER for a good 3 1/2 - 4 hours, sitting around awkwardly hooked up to machines and waiting around for people to get my shit done so I could go home.

This past week I've been healing fairly quickly, the only remaining evidence is a bit of yellow and purple bruising under one of my eyes, a still tender nose, small bruise on my forehead, and the cut on the inside of my lip has been slow to heal.  My neck and shoulders are also still slightly sore.

I've also made some real progress on the whole "life goals" thing this week.  I figured out which classes I still need for which schools, and where and when I can take the classes.  I also finally bought the GRE prep materials (today mid-blog :P) and am going to sign up to take it May 26 I hope. That is very quickly approaching, but I wanted to give myself the option of taking it again before the turn in deadline for applying (I have to take it before July 31st).

And that's all folks!

Update: I just registered (and paid) to take the GRE June 2.  Wish me luck!