new job

Last night was my first shift as a deli clerk.  That's right, a vegan slinging meat and cheese.  I'm actually a little depressed about it, but I know that it is temporary while I am in school.  It's also something new, and therefore normal that I have a little anxiety about it. 

Overall, the job is easy.  Customers come to the counter, order a 1/2 pound or whatever, and I slice it, label it, and bag it.

The time went by quickly, which is good.  The other clerks were all friendly.  I'm sure the anxiety I have about it will pass once I get in to the routine of things.

It's been four years since I had a full time job during the week and an extra food service job on the weekends.  I've gotten to enjoy the weekends off, but its going to be crunch time for the next 18 months: school all day and all night Monday through Thursday, then working Friday, Saturday, and Sunday at the deli.

Jason is going to be helping pay for things at home, but I wish he made more money.  It will still be tight around here, even with me working, too.

I will at least have the opportunity to join the meat cutter union, get health insurance, a pension, and a discount on groceries.

office girl gets sentimental

This afternoon at work, I did two very involved consultations.

The first patient needed all her teeth extracted and wanted them replaced with dental implants.

The second one already had lost all his teeth and had ill-fitting dentures that he hated.  He wanted to have dental implants to replace the missing teeth.

I spent nearly two hours with each patient by the time everything was completed...patient education, the CT-Scan, diagnosis, presentation of the fees, consent forms, etc.

Both left feeling impressed with me and in our office as a whole. 

The whole afternoon was a great confidence booster.  Not that I needed it, but I am just aware at how good I felt about myself at the end of the day after talking to these people about a life-changing investment in their mouth.

It's afternoons like this one that I am going to miss.

school supplies

Yesterday I went up to school to buy my textbooks.  I was just going to rent them online, but I will need them both semesters.  Also, the school has a special deal with a publisher that when a student buys the book in the school bookstore, she can register it online with a special code and also have access to a digital copy as well as other study materials including sample quiz questions and flash cards.

So I went to school on Monday morning and came home with a very heavy bag full of 11 books.  I didn't really pay any attention to the clerk at the cashier desk or to the amount I signed on the receipt.

Late last night, I was going to start reading some of the books, and I went through the bag, and I had two duplicates....like the girl had given me two of the same book....twice!  So I looked at the receipt, and she had only even rung me up for three books!  The total was $245.

This was a significant error in my favor, but I decided that I should go back to the bookstore and pay what was due.  It's not like there was a tiny little error in my favor that no one would probably ever catch; I had been undercharged almost $400!   Plus, there was the dilemma of the two books of which I had duplicates.  I wasn't charged for either of them.  I know there are exactly 32 students in my class, and if I had two books (that I didn't even pay for), then some one was going to be out a book.

So I went back to the bookstore tonight after work, and a nice young man named La Rue helped me.  He took back the duplicate books, credited me a charge that was incorrect, and rung me up for the books for which I still had to pay.

All said and done, I purchased just under $600 worth of books.  My conscious is clear.

I still have to pay for my instruments packs and name tag; those are not in stock yet.  But I have all the other supplies needed.  School starts in less than two weeks!  I am so excited!

High Rockies 2014

I've been in the high Rockies for the past 48 hours for a wedding.  It was gorgeous.  I loved the trees, the smell of the air, the wildflowers, the kind people, the coziness of the fire in the ski lodge even though it was summer, the mountain streams, the wild west look to the tiny towns.

Flew into Denver on Friday and rented a car.  Drove to Vail and checked in the hotel.  Went for a little hike around town with my dad.

Friday night was the rehearsal dinner at a saloon in Minturn.  It was quite scenic with the creek just behind the patio of the bar.

Saturday morning, Uncle Fred and I got up super early and went hiking.  We chose the Big Horn Creek Trail and it was initially quite chilly!  We were the only ones on the trail for the first two hours (turn around point).  On the way back, we encountered 11 people total, only two of whom were local.  They seemed to have known to not go out of the trail at dawn because it would be too cold!

The hike was awesome, though.  I loved being the forest.  The aspen trees are beautiful with their white bark, the silver blue tint to the blue spruce is lovely, too.

The scenic overlook was about 2miles in.  The sun was out by this time and air temps were on the rise!

There was one small area that looked like the type of forest I'm used to around here.  There was about five big evergreen trees with soft dirt/needles on the ground all around.  A nice little creek with waterfall, too.

As we climbed higher and higher (total elevation gain: ~2100ft), we encountered a lot of wildflowers and a narrower and narrower trail.  It was obviously marked, but it was easy to see that not a lot of people came through that far.  There was one part where there had been an avalanche and rocks had fallen over the path.  We had to climb over large boulders for probably 50 meters until we connected with the trail on the other side.

After the hike, we came back I headed to the pool.  I was nearly lunchtime and straight up hot outside (air temps approaching 90F but no humidity).  I did apply sunscreen, but as I was closer to the sun, I got burned, even on my lips!

Early afternoon, Mom, dad, Nancy, Fred, and I drove to Avon, where there was a man-made lake.  The afternoon was gorgeous.   I should have worm my swim suit!

The wedding was on Saturday night and was lovely.  Chris and Kate were married by a creek and the ceremony was short and sweet.  I don't have any pics of it.

On Sunday morning, I went for a walk/hike around town again before we had to drive back to Denver to go to the airport.  We stopped in Idaho Springs for some gas, and this fire station was across the street.  Pretty cool, old building.

Colorado was awesome.  I hadn't been there since 1994, and it was awesome to get back out West as an adult.  I remember being in awe of the mountains twenty years, and I fell in love with them again this past weekend.

One last photo:  A pan from the hike