My Days Are Rarely This Noteworthy...
It's not often that a day gestures so very obviously to both one's past and one's future, but today appears to have done so. Granted, as I've said time and time again, I'm an English major: my job is to overanalyze things, and I consider myself pretty good at that. But I'll let you be the judge.
Any day where I have to wake up at 6:30am is never a good one. Especially considering that, as much as I'm truly enjoying the experience of teaching my students, I would be having a much better time if I was able to get my students to actually, um, talk. This morning, sadly, was no better than usual; I've come to the conclusion that I guess I'm just going to have to let them sink or swim on their own. Sometimes that's the only way to motivate people, though I'd hate to think that's what's getting in the way here. I mean, half my class on Monday was listening to two rock songs and analyzing them. It's not like I'm not trying.
After a relatively uneventful but kinda amusing seminar, I spoke with fellow grad student Emily, who seems to have been having the same problem. She's taken the more "motherly" (her word)--
I couldn't chat too long with Emily, though, because I had to get back to my car across campus and make my way to Mt. Nittany Medical Center for my Holter monitor appointment. I'm not sure what I was expecting from the process, but it was a much briefer initial ordeal and a much bigger pain in the ass than I had anticipated.
Imagine this: you've got about 8 sticky things, similar to the leads on an EKG, stuck around your chest. Attached to each is the actual wire, all 8 wires attaching to a big bulky black box (which looks a lot like a really old, circa 1990, Sony Walkman) which hangs by a surgical mask-like sling wrapped around your neck like a miniature messenger bag. Surgical tape holds the leads down more securely, and the wires are all bundled together, wrapped in gauze, and taped to the center of your chest between your pecs. Finally, an ACE Bandage wrapped twice around your chest attempts to hold everything down.
This is bothersome for a whole bunch of reasons. Firstly, and most obviously, it's really fucking uncomfortable. The monitor itself throws my balance off so much, forcing me to keep myself tilted a bit to the right to keep myself up straight. Plus, I'm so paranoid that the leads or tape or bandage is gonna come undone and throw the whole thing off. I also can't take a shower until it comes off (tomorrow around 1:00pm), and it's so hard to hide under clothes, even baggy ones. As I made my way back to campus to fulfill my office hours duties, I felt like a suicide bomber, with all these wires and shit strapped to my body. It was unbelievably awkward.
The other major inconvenience of this thing is that I have to stay far away from two items I tend to be pretty close to all the time: cell phones and microwaves. The avoidance of microwaves isn't too difficult -- I mean, I heated my lunch up in one today, but just walked far away from it after I started it -- but, seriously now. Cell phones? Especially on a college campus, with 45,000 undergrads, all with parents just dying to hear from their babies everyday and friends that are constantly trying to get ahold of them, I knew this would be a challenge.
I was doing quite well until the ride back. Trying to get off campus at 4:00pm is quite the challenge, and the Blue Loop was, unsurprisingly, packed to the gills. As I got on the bus, though, I got sandwiched between a small girl and a guy who came on already yakking on his cell. I tried turning my body to move the monitor as far from this dude as possible, but no sooner did I turn than did the girl get on her phone as well. Now, I can't possibly be so rude as to ask them to hang up -- a) it's just not polite, even if the conversations happening were downright asinine and featured the word "like" more often than any other word combined; b) I wasn't about to explain/show them why it was so critical that they quit gabbing -- but I spent the whole time waiting to move in the hopes that the signals wouldn't fuck up the magnetic tape.
In my efforts to avoid the cellular interference, I turned and stared right into the eyes of another one of the guys on the bus. I stared for a few seconds, partially because I wasn't sure what to do in terms of moving, and partially because the guy was vaguely recognizable. I turned away and didn't say anything because I was too flustered to put all the pieces together, but after reaching my car, the pieces finally fit: I went to high school and played in the band with him! A quick trip home and a search on Facebook confirmed that the gentleman in question -- one David Ortiz, no relation to the ball player (thank God) -- was, in fact, a Penn State student ('08). Success! We've since shared a few messages, and I personally hope we start chatting it up again regularly, as it always helps to know people in new places. And who knows? Maybe he'll need a ride back home at some point. Always good to know I can be of service.
So here I sit now, with this stupid (but useful) contraption hanging off me, no immediate work due for tomorrow, and me counting the minutes until tomorrow afternoon when this whole thing is said and done. The only consolation I have right now is that, as per my suspicions, I did have a slight flutter before, which prompted me to hit the event button and make a log in my diary. Which means that, if nothing else, the monitor should have picked up at least one instance of what's been happening the past few weeks.
For better or worse, that's what I was hoping for. I'd rather know what the problem is and be able to address it, knowledgeably and head-on, than have nothing come up and me still be in the dark. Obviously, I don't want this to be anything serious, but with me still in relatively strong health and a positive reading on the monitor, it seems like I really have done all I could. It doesn't really feel all that good to know that there could be some kind of bad news on the horizon, but again: better to know than not. And better to catch it earlier than later.
Granted, it's probably just a lucky stroke of kismet that I should run into someone today that hearkens me back to my past. But that, as well as this whole little health scare, has had me focused on the future, and I've got my fingers crossed that a bright and healthy one is ahead of me.
Any day where I have to wake up at 6:30am is never a good one. Especially considering that, as much as I'm truly enjoying the experience of teaching my students, I would be having a much better time if I was able to get my students to actually, um, talk. This morning, sadly, was no better than usual; I've come to the conclusion that I guess I'm just going to have to let them sink or swim on their own. Sometimes that's the only way to motivate people, though I'd hate to think that's what's getting in the way here. I mean, half my class on Monday was listening to two rock songs and analyzing them. It's not like I'm not trying.
After a relatively uneventful but kinda amusing seminar, I spoke with fellow grad student Emily, who seems to have been having the same problem. She's taken the more "motherly" (her word)--
brief digression: in the interest of full disclosure, I totally typed "motherfuckerly" the first time I tried writing that--approach with her class, but having told her about my more hands-off approach, she feels a lot more confident and will try to stick to it. The bottom line is that, like I was when I was a new undergrad, these folks probably think they know everything. I've tried warning them that many of them will be quite unhappy with their first grades, the thing I would think would be the ultimate warning, but I'm not 100% confident it's settled in yet. I guess they'll just have to learn the hard way.
I couldn't chat too long with Emily, though, because I had to get back to my car across campus and make my way to Mt. Nittany Medical Center for my Holter monitor appointment. I'm not sure what I was expecting from the process, but it was a much briefer initial ordeal and a much bigger pain in the ass than I had anticipated.
Imagine this: you've got about 8 sticky things, similar to the leads on an EKG, stuck around your chest. Attached to each is the actual wire, all 8 wires attaching to a big bulky black box (which looks a lot like a really old, circa 1990, Sony Walkman) which hangs by a surgical mask-like sling wrapped around your neck like a miniature messenger bag. Surgical tape holds the leads down more securely, and the wires are all bundled together, wrapped in gauze, and taped to the center of your chest between your pecs. Finally, an ACE Bandage wrapped twice around your chest attempts to hold everything down.
This is bothersome for a whole bunch of reasons. Firstly, and most obviously, it's really fucking uncomfortable. The monitor itself throws my balance off so much, forcing me to keep myself tilted a bit to the right to keep myself up straight. Plus, I'm so paranoid that the leads or tape or bandage is gonna come undone and throw the whole thing off. I also can't take a shower until it comes off (tomorrow around 1:00pm), and it's so hard to hide under clothes, even baggy ones. As I made my way back to campus to fulfill my office hours duties, I felt like a suicide bomber, with all these wires and shit strapped to my body. It was unbelievably awkward.
The other major inconvenience of this thing is that I have to stay far away from two items I tend to be pretty close to all the time: cell phones and microwaves. The avoidance of microwaves isn't too difficult -- I mean, I heated my lunch up in one today, but just walked far away from it after I started it -- but, seriously now. Cell phones? Especially on a college campus, with 45,000 undergrads, all with parents just dying to hear from their babies everyday and friends that are constantly trying to get ahold of them, I knew this would be a challenge.
I was doing quite well until the ride back. Trying to get off campus at 4:00pm is quite the challenge, and the Blue Loop was, unsurprisingly, packed to the gills. As I got on the bus, though, I got sandwiched between a small girl and a guy who came on already yakking on his cell. I tried turning my body to move the monitor as far from this dude as possible, but no sooner did I turn than did the girl get on her phone as well. Now, I can't possibly be so rude as to ask them to hang up -- a) it's just not polite, even if the conversations happening were downright asinine and featured the word "like" more often than any other word combined; b) I wasn't about to explain/show them why it was so critical that they quit gabbing -- but I spent the whole time waiting to move in the hopes that the signals wouldn't fuck up the magnetic tape.
In my efforts to avoid the cellular interference, I turned and stared right into the eyes of another one of the guys on the bus. I stared for a few seconds, partially because I wasn't sure what to do in terms of moving, and partially because the guy was vaguely recognizable. I turned away and didn't say anything because I was too flustered to put all the pieces together, but after reaching my car, the pieces finally fit: I went to high school and played in the band with him! A quick trip home and a search on Facebook confirmed that the gentleman in question -- one David Ortiz, no relation to the ball player (thank God) -- was, in fact, a Penn State student ('08). Success! We've since shared a few messages, and I personally hope we start chatting it up again regularly, as it always helps to know people in new places. And who knows? Maybe he'll need a ride back home at some point. Always good to know I can be of service.
So here I sit now, with this stupid (but useful) contraption hanging off me, no immediate work due for tomorrow, and me counting the minutes until tomorrow afternoon when this whole thing is said and done. The only consolation I have right now is that, as per my suspicions, I did have a slight flutter before, which prompted me to hit the event button and make a log in my diary. Which means that, if nothing else, the monitor should have picked up at least one instance of what's been happening the past few weeks.
For better or worse, that's what I was hoping for. I'd rather know what the problem is and be able to address it, knowledgeably and head-on, than have nothing come up and me still be in the dark. Obviously, I don't want this to be anything serious, but with me still in relatively strong health and a positive reading on the monitor, it seems like I really have done all I could. It doesn't really feel all that good to know that there could be some kind of bad news on the horizon, but again: better to know than not. And better to catch it earlier than later.
Granted, it's probably just a lucky stroke of kismet that I should run into someone today that hearkens me back to my past. But that, as well as this whole little health scare, has had me focused on the future, and I've got my fingers crossed that a bright and healthy one is ahead of me.
posted by Dave at 9/12/2007 07:27:00 PM
2 Comments:
Well, if the monitor doesn't give any useful data, you can always try the Deke Slayton approach to inexplicable heart trouble: take your vitamins.
http://history.nasa.gov/40thmerc7/slayton.htm
I've been rather vitamin-deficient, it's true. Partly because I've been trying to decrease my total consumption while out here -- usually works during the week, but weekends kill me -- and partly because the vitamins I brought out here I'm not taking.
Not that I shouldn't be doing either of those things (I know I should), but I'm going to hold off until the monitor results come in. Mostly, I want to know if my heart can stand some relatively vigorous cardiovascular exercise (like the elliptical Emily has so graciously offered me the complimentary use of). If it can, I have to go full-tilt, all or nothing. That's the only way any of my weight loss plans (see late 2005) ever worked.
Post a Comment
<< Home