click HERE for my favorite website. The Daily Coyote.

Taking The Plunge!

Well, this week Justin and I also became engaged! Whoa! YES! Here are photos of  Justin standing in front of an old railway stop sign and then of the flooding of the Missouri that was happening from all the rain going on that week.  And the three below are of us, post taking-The-Plunge, the benches where we took The Plunge, and of me showing off my new bling-bling.  It's and beautiful silver and turquoise ring.  So much love, 

Adriana Vanbianchi

Bike Trip Extravaganza

It has been real nice having this week of school off and we have been planning a trip for a long time.  We rode the Katy Trail which is an old railroad track that has been converted into a 260 mile bike path.  There are small, very rural towns to stop in along the way for camping and food supplies.  But it all feels really rural, and with the heat, and fine misty humid rain, we felt like we were riding through the rain forest of Central America.  We saw tons of wildlife, birds, frogs, turtles, rabbits, snakes, found morels, it was highly successful. 

Relaxation Time

Yes! Class is over for ten days.  1/3 of Paramedic school complete!  It was 94 degrees here today and felt...so...good.  We made dinner and took beers down to the Grand Basin in Forest Park and threw the Frisbee for Scout to cool everyone off.  Tourists and families gathered to watch the incredible dog acrobatics. And when people ask if she is friendly we say "no" which is absolutely true and as long as Scout is focused on the Frisbee no one gets barked at.   

Winters over and it feels like my muscles are relaxing.

Hasta Pronto

Adriana

Long Time No Write

It's officially hot here today and that feels wonderful.  It's the last week of the first quarter of class.  Meaning, we are having finals and that THEN it is vacation time.  I cannot wait and am actually trying to get our finals done early for MORE vacation time SOONER.  But now that feels like a lot of cramming.  We are planning of riding the Katy Trail across Missouri.  Justin got a new bike and it will be a celebration ride and I am so excited to get out of town and get some heat on the body.

.

  Also, above is a photo of the St Louis Marathon that happened on Sunday.  This photo was taken before the race so I look fresh and dry and it's about 6:30am.  Okay, so I had high hopes of running it in 3:30...but that didn't happen.  In the end, I was just glad I finished it.  It was under 4 hours, barely.  The day of the marathon was pretty wet, rainy and I felt like I was coming down with something.  But I listened to music, let the excitement of the event pull me through and it always feels so, so good to finish.  I am still at the never-do-a-marathon-again stage as my body puts itself back into working order.  But I would love to run a trail event, or the Great Wall of China.  But imagine being soaking wet, sore, hungry and cold and the first thing you do when you get back to the house  from the race is sit in an ice cold bath to try to mitigate the muscle soreness...those moments in the ice bath were terrible.   

Take care and I miss you all.  Back to the real reason I am sitting here and the desk...homework.

Books I have read since arriving here is STL

The Hobbit

Marley and Me

Paramedic Care, Book 2 

Daily Coyote

I am now reading

Feeling Good

Medical Terminology

Paramedic Care Book 1

The World According to Garp

Below is a picture of our room a month ago.  This captures the feeling of a job that will never finish.  That of scraping wallpaper off the walls.

And here is our room this afternoon.  Notice the black head of hair relaxing and the big ears enjoying a few privileged seconds on the bed.  It's 70+ degrees today for the third day in a row and it feels good.  Feels like vacation and like breathing space and relaxation.

Good Friday Morning!  Mine is going well.  It's been sunny here, sunny enough to run in just a sports-bra and get some vitamin D.  Scout has been benched from runs because a piece of her rough pad on her paw is missing...maybe from glass or salt on the streets.  But I just threw the tennis ball for a while and now she is relaxing next to me.  

Highlights of the Week

First, and foremost, Justin and I went to a Chuck Berry concert.  Chuck Berry is from St Louis and although he is 87, he still plays a concert once a month at a venue around the corner from the house called Blueberry Hill.  He has played over 100 times there and still puts on an awesome show.  The crowd was excited, especially the people standing next to us who had flown in from Georgia for the night to see the show.  Chuck Berry came out at 10pm sharp (he won't come on stage before 10) with his son, an electric piano, base guitarist, and a drummer carrying a backpack stuffed with drum sticks.  Chuck wore a sailors cap, a sequined blue shirt, and had a red electric guitar.

Chuck Berry and Charlie Berry

I know, the pictures are blurry but I didn't want the flash to go off during the concert.  He played a surprising number of songs that I new, but never knew who played them.  And he danced, told jokes, and came in just a half a beat late or sometimes just went "hmmmmmlaladola..." when he forgot a verse to his song.  It was a fun, St Louis night, with a dress, boots, and good-lookin' date!

Other highlights include long and more regimented runs (the marathon is in 8 weeks), warm weather, letters in my P.O. Box, good books, planning a spring break trip to the Smokey Mountains, studying at the coffee shops, phone calls to and from friends, working at the Emergency Room with nurses who don't mind teaching you how to give shots and administer medications, feeling good with Justin, and looking forward to spending the weekend out at his Dads place in the Ozarks.

Yesterday I had my first clinical rotation in the ER.  Meaning; I spent a twelve hours working/being trained in the Emergency Room of the Hospital.   I met a lot of people with all sorts of injuries and complaints.  While some of the patients give me the whoozes to think about now, when I was working, it was no problem at all.  There was poop, blood, bad breath, drooling geriatrics, knife wounds, kidney stones, crazy patients, and dog bites.   And the learning curve happened super fast.  I was giving shots, drawing blood, starting IVs and also on the floor cleaning up blood splatter.  So, from now on, I have 1 or 2 clinical rotations each week and that is where I will get the bulk of my skills and training.  

 School is finally turning up the heat and I feel like there is a job for me to do...YES!  We are studying the skin now.  Why do they show the most horrific pictures as examples of skin diseases?  For example;  if they are explaining about warts, they can't just show a picture of a wart of the back of the hand...it has to be a pile of warts on the genitalia to get the point across.  Good Night and Love from Adriana

Wet, warm feet.

This is on the banks of the Missouri River.

More Trail Still to Go!!!

Good Morning!  On Sunday I went on a snowy, muddy, wonderful run about 45 minutes outside of the city at Weldon Springs.  Last week in a coffee shop I overheard two people talking and one recommended Weldon Springs to his friend and I wrote the name down on my homework.  And it is really a great trail system along the Missouri river.  Unlike the Northwest, where there are deep, rich, green colors in the forest all year-round, Missouri becomes shades of brown in the winter, stark sunlight shines through 100% bare trees and crisp, dead oak leaves cover the ground.  It's a different kind of natural beauty... and I'll take any day trail running in it I can get. 

There was snow, mud, deer tracks, raccoon tracks and really not too much else on the trail.  Even though it was a Sunday, there weren't that many people out there.  After listening to music for the first hour of the run, I decided to take my earphones out and....there was wind noise, bird noises, Scout running through the trees noise and I left the earphones out for the rest of the run.   

Forest Park in Oregon

It's a cold and sunny Saturday and I just want to say thank you to everyone who has been reading this blog.  It means a lot and I am so glad that friends and family have been checking this out.  I know how much I enjoy checking other peoples blogs so I'm glad that mines being enjoyed.   It feels so good to receive a message from somebody telling me they are reading the blog.  It makes me feel connected to the peeps I love so thanks.   

Also, I know that nobody loves seeing pictures of Scout as much as I do, but the thing is, if she is not in the picture, than nobody would be in the picture.  Since I am the one usually with the camera.  

Justin and I moved out of his Moms office and into our new room on the top floor of the new house.  The house is still under renovation so it is dusty, filled with boxes, construction tool, and unplugged appliances, but our room is done so the bed has been moved over there.  Now, it is off on a run around Forest Park.  St Louis has a urban park that is the second largest in the country...Portland, Oregons Forest Park being the largest.  Becca and Erin keep talking about these epic trips to the Gorge they are going on and it pulls on my heartstrings.  So much love and I hope everyone is happy, healthy, and warm.

Adriana 

Artistic Series with Uncooperative Sidekick

The middle picture makes me laugh every time I look at it.  These pictures were taken out at Justins Dads house in rural Missouri.  I walked down to the valley below his cabin and took these pictures.  It was a beautiful, sunny, 46+ degrees day.  

Now we are back in St Louis and Scout is in her safe zone under the desk while I write this.  Tomorrow is class, a test and we are (hopefully) moving into the new room in the new house this weekend!  Yes!  I will unpack my bags!  I am excited about mascara, face soap, my lotion, shoes, my robe and slippers.  I have been living out of one backpack since leaving Portland and, all in all, I haven't missed many of my material things.  Which is good given the situation.  

Much Love and Goodnight

Adriana

Today was the frozen Buns Run and I ran into second place in the womens category.  It felt good, sunny weather, I was actually really sweaty.  In the second picture I am showing off my new trophy, and in the first I am posing next to one of the many ice sculptures on display at the ANNUAL ICE FESTIVAL YAHOO!  This one was in front of a bookstore so it is about books.  The rest of the day was spent peeling wall paper off our new room.   And that was accomplished too!  Yes!  That was a bigger project than expected.  

Much Love

Adriana

Scout In Her Safe Zone

Serious Students You Are Messing With Here

Important Paramedic Questions

Here are a list of questions I have now that I am in PARAMEDIC SCHOOL that I cannot find time to ask during class.
Can we talk more about Lactic Acid?
When we talk about Fight or Flight mode...and you say that in the flight mode your digestive tract shuts down and you won't excrete anything. Why do people have to take a dump when they get scared?
If medications are easily, and better, absorbed through the colon, does that mean that we may absorb our own poop particles as it sits in our small intestines?
Heroin and other IV drug users must be really good at starting IV lines and would do very well at finding veins on patients. I mean, they can find veins between toes!
Why don't we have shoot pressurized medication through the skin like the army does? Then we wouldn't have to bother with needles.

Back on Track

Hello!

The Camera came in the mail and here are some of the first pictures.  They are of the 5 dogs in the house.  The first picture is Timber; mature, astute, camera shy.  The second set  is of Scout, Acaccia (Hot Pasta) and Maggie.  Scout, barky, energy, loves sticks, Frisbee and will not let her owners out of eyesight.  Acaccia; Skittish, loving, extreme overbite, big eyes and bat-like ears.  Scout and Acaccia spend hours playing together.  Maggie: mature, easy-going, loves runs, reminds me of Zoe.  Mingus is pictured caught in the act of lounging on our bed.  The dogs are constantly crawling up on the beds during the day to "relax" and must be pulled off.  There is constantly someone or something that you can sing to and cuddle with. 

Okay, another topic;  School is going well.  There are 24 students, 4 girls, we wear uniforms, start practicing giving intravenous practice tomorrow.  Meaning we will be sticking each other with needles and practicing drawing blood.  I don't like needles so I have been watching UTube videos to get ready.  There are IVs stuck into your extremities, neck, and sometimes in your bone...hmmm I am not sure which ones we are doing.

I did well on the first quiz and it feels good to start off on a good foot.  I just want to keep spending a lot of time studying and keep the focus on school...and the marathon in April.  And also I signed up for a run this weekend.  The Frozen Buns Run which is a 10k.

Hokay, I love you all and will write and post more photos manana!  Good night

Adriana  

It's the morning and classes start tonight.  I am savoring the feeling of having nothing hanging over my head.  Not having the feeling that I SHOULD be studying, or homework...I am enjoying reading what I please, and just relaxing mentally. But I know a lot of friends who are also starting classes this week, and they understand exactly what I mean.

This week we have a free guest card to a really hoity-nice gym that not only has a great work-out facility, but saunas, hot tubs, steam rooms.  When I am in there by myself I think of al the great steam-rooms and saunas I have taken with girlfriends.  

There's a lot of moving going on and we spent eight hours hauling boxes yesterday.  Right now, here is the living situation;  there are five dogs in the house.  Imagine what it is like while we are eating dinner.  Under the table are five dogs silently smashed in and every once in a while surfacing to give you a heartfelt stare and beg for attention or maybe just a LITTLE bit of food.  Then there are five adults in the house.  Justins parents are in the process of moving to a new home, so the house is being slowly boxed up and moved to the new location 2 miles away...there is a lot to be done and it feels like I am earning my keep through helping the moving process.  

I am excited to explore the trails and nature around St Louis.

I signed up for a 10k race on the 17th (birthday run for my DAD).

My bike is in the shop getting fixed up and new handlebar tape, silver.

I want to get my hair high-lighted so it looks like I spent the fall in Hawaii.

I miss you and love you all

Adriana

I PASSED THE ENTRANCE EXAM!!

YES!  Wouldn't that have been just terrific if I hadn't.  Wow, this whole thing would have been a flop so it's really nice to have that out of the way there was a celebratory run and then I spent an hour picking up dog poop.  I am still super-positive about my decision to get Paramedic school and school starts Tuesday.  We both ended up in the night class; 5:30-10:00pm Tuesday and Thursday.  There is a policy that "acquaintances" cannot sit next to each other, or have the same rotation in the hospitals and fire stations.   Okay with me.  And I am glad to be in the night class because I have a terrible tendency to fall asleep after lunch.  

Apparently my SIM card is too OLD for my phone so I have to get a new one...meaning that my phone will not be working anytime soon.  And I am having trouble checking my messages.   Now I need my bike in working order and to get a map of this place.  Okay, easy does it and I love you.

Adriana Vanbianchi

Made It!

Yes, after 5 hards days of driving, here is home for the year.  It is the first day of the new year and it feels like a first day of a new endeavor.  This makes sense, because it is.  I am having trouble with my cell phone, so I am sorry that I haven't called anyone.  

We arrived here  two days early than planned after being turned South at the Minnesota boarder.  After Snow, chains, avalanches, drifts, and snow plows, ice on the roads in Minnesota made the drive feel impossibly dangerous and long and instead of seeing John and Becca, we stayed at another Motel 8 in Sioux Falls...not even close to the same thing and I was super disappointed.  From Sioux Falls, it was another long day of driving and we arrived here in St Louis around 8pm  last night.  Whew.  Scout got introduced to the four dogs that live here and her anal glands and nervous energy stunk up the whole house.  Justins family, including the dogs, are all so welcoming and it feels easy and good to be here.  And I just want to be easy on myself.  Allow myself to adjust and not take on too much...actually what I mean is; I want to not overwhelm myself with expectations for myself and negativity and break down in front of his family.  There, it's out and that's the truth.  And that is part of the reason for this blog.  To be able to share what is happening with me, but have it be public enough that I won't want to focus on the negative and write like it's a personal diary.  I am tricking myself into looking at the positive ha ha!  And it is working so far.  It's a good thing, not hard to do, but easy to forget when I feel overwhelmed.  

I wish I could post some pictures from the road, and of where I am right now.  I received a digi-cam for Christmas which is still en-route.  All I had was a disposable camera on the road.  So, pictures are forth-coming.

NEW YEAR RESOLUTIONS

Get into Paramedic School (entrance exam is tomorrow, should be studying)

Do well in St Louis Marathon

Do well in Paramedic School

Stay Physically Strong

Focus on Positive

Write letters and stay in contact with friends and family

There are always more personal ones that I am working on year-round that mostly have to do with being kind to humanity and nature.

All right, take care and I hope you all had  happy celebrations last night.