Phone Drama

Holy crap today was a stressful phone drama day. My phone that I dearly love (the original LG enV), has been on the fritz lately and hasn't been chargely properly. Today I couldn't get it to charge at all, so I took it to a local Verizon store. The charging port was broken, which is common on any of the enVs. I was able to purchase a replacement phone (another LG enV). Then I got it back to where I'm living and when I made a call no one could hear my voice. I took it back right away and bless their hearts they were able to fix it. I now have a new (but refurbished) phone that charges properly:)

Family Fusion: And now for the videos…

Some of you have heard me talk about this thing I do at church called Family Fusion. It's the thing I act in once a month. I have a few links to videos if anyone's interested in watching them. They about 1 hour, but some (especially the first) may be longer.

And now for the videos…

Andy downloaded the videos to our server (each production took at least 8 hours to download!!) I had trouble with the first “medium” file but the “large” worked well. Here is a note from Andy about the videos:
“Users can right-click and choose to save them, or let their in-browser Quicktime player show the stream. Keep in mind these are large files and will take some time to either buffer up or download.”

www.blackhawkmedia.org/temp/febffmed.mov

www.blackhawkmedia.org/temp/febfflarge.mov

www.blackhawkmedia.org/temp/marchffmed.mov

www.blackhawkmedia.org/temp/marchfflarge.mov

www.blackhawkmedia.org/temp/aprilffmed.mov

www.blackhawkmedia.org/temp/aprilfflarge.mov

www.blackhawkmedia.org/temp/mayffmed.mov

www.blackhawkmedia.org/temp/mayfflarge.mov

Hope you enjoy them!

Pictures

Here's where I'm living for the summer. It's a cute 3 bd townhouse. My room is on the back side, but parking's great:)

Here's one of the VA clinics in Augusta. I spend Mondays and Fridays here. This is the older of the two clinics, but is where we do all the special audiology tests such as balance testing (ENG/VNG, rotary chair, and posturography), ABR, and OAEs along with the occasional cochlear implant mapping.

This is the other VA clinic here. I spend Tuesdays and Thursdays here. It's a pretty new building (only 10 years old) and it's huge! It's easier to find a parking spot here as parking is quite limited at the other clinic.

Gray skies have cleared up...I have a happy face

I know I've had a rough couple of days just getting used to clinic and the different protocols, but yesterday and today were both pretty good days. Yesterday I did a bunch of hearing tests, because I really feel I suck at them. I did a hearing aid fit all by myself, with absolutely no supervision and I feel it went really well. Today one of the audiologists was out sick and I basically took over her caseload. I did some audios (again more practice) and cleaned the grossest hearing aid I have ever seen.

Beyond the clinic world, it's been real hot here probably about 95 degrees. Today it was over 100 degrees and sitting in AC is the only thing that sounds doable. Tomorrow it's supposed to be even warmer so I'm planning on hanging by the pool.

I've gotten some time to read some great books lately. Jody Piccoult's My Sister's Keeper (soon to be a movie) was amazing and like any of her books I cried a ton. I've also re-read Twilight and Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince. I have a 40% coupon at Borders and will most likely buy a book to read by the pool tomorrow.

Gonna go eat some more pizza with my roommate/landlord, Amanda.

I think I can, I think I can

I'm in my second week of clinic and I'm realizing that the VA isn't the best site for me to work in someday. I love the VA I'm at, but I just feel better suited to work with kids than grumpy old men with really hairy ears. Over the weekend I almost had a breakdown and wanted to quit school and do anything but audiology. I've come to my senses, but am really glad that in less than 2 months this placement will be over and I'll be back in Madison.

I miss Madison and my friends there along with only being a day's drive from my family. I miss having a church home where I feel encouraged. I miss Farmers Market and knowing where I'm going when I drive.

Other than that classes started this week. I have to do two online courses along with clinic. My medical issues class should be a breeze but hearing conservation may not be as easy. There's a lot of busy work and a test every week for the first couple weeks. Not looking forward to it.

First 3 days of clinic

Hey y'all I've been in Augusta for a week. Friday and Saturday I spent in Savannah with my 'rents. It was amazing-we went on a historic trolley tour and saw many awesome sites (I'll try to post some pictures). The hotel we stayed at a hotel near the riverwalk and walked down there for supper, praline candy samples, and some drinks (which you can get in a plastic cup and walk around downtown with)! Saturday we did some house tours of the two houses Juliet Gordon Low, the founder of Girl Scouts, which were beautiful and kept us out of the rain. We also went into the Cathedral of St. John the Baptist, another great site that compares to many of the large Catholic churches I saw in Ireland 9 years ago. It was so peaceful and calm in there and the artwork was spectacular. Saturday night we headed to Columbia, SC and my parents flew out of there Sunday morning.

Clinic Day 1: I reported for clinic and was hustled into the HR department. HR didn't know that I was starting Monday and had lost some of my paperwork. Next, I had to be fingerprinted, not a big deal. I then needed to get a name badge which serves a couple of purposes: nametag and its swiped to get into the parking lot. Something got messed up here and I was then told to go to new employee orientation. Here I heard about benefits that I'm not receiving and had to fill out tax forms for wages I'm not going to get.

Clinic Day 2: Went back for more orientation, a half hour into it, I was called out to the hallway and told I didn't have to be there and to report to my superviosr. I tried to call my supervisor for 2 hours with no luck as she was in an all-staff meeting. I was starting to feel a stress migrane come on and so I called my supervisor again to tell her I was going home because I didn't feel good.

Clinic Day 3: (Better Day) Reported to my supervisor this morning and met some of the staff at the uptown division (so far I'd only been at the downtown division). I got my schedule figured out which is good. I have to do 40 hours a week (this VA's requirement), but I got to choose if I wanted to complete those hours in 4 or 5 days. Of course I chose 4 days, so I'll be in clinic Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, and Friday from 7:30 am til 6 pm with a hour to hour and a half lunch. I'll have Wednesdays off to just chill and catch up on homework. As for audiology stuff I just watched a bunch of audios, took a few case histories, and watched some hearing aid fittings. I don't have a coding/billing number yet, so I couldn't do anything too involved.

Tomorrow I'm helping another student trainee with new hearing aid user group. We'll fit a bunch of BTEs and do real ear with the Verifit system (for you auddies out there), then we'll do some orientation to the different features. It should be a good time. Speaking of other students there be a few down here with me. One started a couple of weeks ago and he's same semester as me; another starts in two weeks and she just finished her first year; two fourth years start sometime in July.

Augusta

I arrived in Augusta today:) I left Humboldt with my parents Monday morning and after a lot of driving, we got to Augusta about 3 p.m. EST. All in all it was a good drive. Stopped in Nashville and I loved it. Got to see the Ryman and the Country Music Hall of Fame and Music Row; it was pretty great and hopefully will spend more time there later.

I moved into the room I'm renting this afternoon. I found it on Craigslist and so far it's great. It's a cute little townhouse in a well-kept neighbor and my landlord is pretty great. She's an attorney down here and a couple years older than me. She has a bulldoge (Bogey) who is super-friendly and just cute!

Found the main VA hospital today and will explore more of Augusta tomorrow and find the downtown VA clinic. Getting a little nervous to start Monday, but will have time to review different things before then.