100th Post

Thanks to ll who replied to my last post. I had really good suggestions from my last post and it was hard to pick just one, but it gave me ideas for future posts.
My 50th post was dedicated to things that I was grateful for, so go ahead and check it out.
I was afraid if I blogged on 100 people I could kill. I wouldn't want someone googling their own name and coming upon my blog.
I like my sister's idea, but I stopped around 28 of awkward moments. Maybe some future posts.
A major shout-out goes out to Heather and I dedicate this post to her. May you bask in the warm fuzzies from afar, Heather.

And for Rachel, here is the list of my favorite numbers from 1-100.

100 Reasons to Visit Me.

24. It's me!! Is there any better reason?

8. I MISS YOU!!!

80. Carlsbad Caverns is less than a few hours away. Camping! And bats (best seen during summer)!

99. Franklin Mountains State Park (America's largest urban state park). Good place to have a picnic at some overlooks with really good views. When I first saw it, I joked it was the "make-out point" of El Paso on the weekends.

15. Only 11-12 hours from California!! I'm not that far away. It's like driving to Utah, but you save more on gas.

12. We will laugh. Oh, yes. We will laugh.


18. You miss me.

21. You need to try something new.

16. One year until I'm deployed. The clock is ticking.

36. Lincoln National Forest (NM). Get my "tree" fix.

92. You can get lots of ideas for "desert landscaping"

34. Less than 6 hours away from the closest In n' Out (Arizona)

1. Old Mesilla Village

77. I have an extra bedroom and bathroom. Better than the Hilton, no? Well, maybe not.


33. Petroglyphs!!

43. I think El Paso still gets more water than Southern California. It may not be as "desert-ish" as you think.

49. Blue sky! I don't see very much smog.

27. Photo scavenger hunt (I love Heather's 100 photos of Texas idea, need to break out the camera!)

66. The weather has been in the 70'! And 40's, than 60's. Maybe 70's tomorrow. This was all this past week.

20. Albuquerque is less than 4 hours away, would make a good day/weekend trip.

28. Gas is cheaper here than in California.

3. Hueco Tanks State Park

54. You only have to drive on one freeway to get here (if coming from California). Yay for I-10!!

22. Home of the Sun Bowl!

37. The Aerial Tramway. I haven't even done the one in Palm Springs yet, this might be a good ride.

75. El Paso Museum of Art

2. Ysleta Mission - first established in 1682.

88. Minor League Baseball team : the Diablos.

100. An outlet mall that's pretty close. Plus there's at least 3 other malls in El Paso.

14. Lots of Latin music at YSA dances.

81. You can watch the sunset over two states and two countries

10. Avila's Mexican Restaurant

4. Good mountain biking (I have heard).

25. Good salsa.

50. You can walk some of the same roads Billy the Kid walked in Las Cruces, NM.

97. Albuquerque temple

23. Many of these places I haven't been to yet, we can explore together!

76. White Sands National Monument

31. It is possible to snow in El Paso (but not enough that you have to worry about shoveling the sidewalk).

64. I'll make you cookies. Maybe even a pie.

5. Good stopover to visiting other cities in Texas. Dallas and San Antonio are about 8-9 hours away. There's not much in between them and El Paso, believe me.

65. Lots of hiking opportunities.

69. Have you ever been this close to Mexico?? Sorry I can't cross the border with you.

44. Ciudad Juarez temple (sorry, can't go with you there either).

17. The night janitor is concerned for my social life. Having an out-of-town visitor may motivate me to procrastinate finishing my notes a little.

61. BlueBelle Ice Cream

77. Some bands/singers do actually come to perform in El Paso. So far since I've been here, there's been Brittany Spears, Parachute, and Kelly Clarkson, David Cook, Manheim Steamroller, and Third Eye Blind are coming in the next few weeks.

55. Hobby Lobby (crafts/home accents store - usually has good sales).

26. Just 40 minutes from the Land of Enchantment -- New Mexico!!

90. You can stop in Phoenix on the way here from California. It's a good half-way point.

3. Taco Cabana: 24 Hour Tacos and good rotisserie chicken.

60. Will you ever see a Wal Mart parking lot with more cars from Mexico than from Texas?

13. Home of the National Border Patrol Museum

86. It's Sun City, USA. Famous for an average of 302 days of sunshine throughout the yar.

9. A huge Cinco De Mayo festival

39. El Paso is the 21st largest metropolitan area in the United States.

6. How many people can really say that they've been to El Paso?

19. It's on the way to Houston, New Orleans, Florida, and a bunch of other places.

58. I have a nice view of cactus from my balcony. Lots of it.

96. UTEP (University of Texas El Paso) makes it a college town, I guess. Go Miners!

78. Lots of men and women in uniform.

7. Awesome lightning storms.

47. Tax free shopping at the Post Exchange (like a Target/WalMart) and Commissary (grocery store on post)!

59. I may actually be motivated to cook some real food.

41. Excuse to visit the largest state in the continental United States

89. There's a cool star that lights up on the mountain. It just happens to be the world's largest illuminated star.

67. Ruby's BBQ. Has some really good BBQ sauce. There's also a Famous Dave's that I still need to check out.

86. When I'm standing in line at the grocery store, people seem to be very chatty here.

11. Annual Amigo Airshow held at Fort Bliss.

73. Have you ever seen a volcanic crater? Well, now you can.

51. Since it's in the Mountain Standard Time Zone, television shows come on one hour earlier = a. better chance of catching your favorite show, and b. Getting to bed earlier.

79. Delta offers some of the cheapest, non-stop flights from Salt Lake City.

84. I recently discovered a place that sells frozen custard. I haven't seen one of those places since college.

83. Annual Wine and Jazz festival in Las Cruces.

43. Stephen's Hot Cocoa and a lot of imported German treats are available at the commissary.

30. You might be inspired if you watch "Glory Road"

45. There's a couple of scenic drives around El Paso, including a road known as "Scenic Drive."

32. Transmountain road is kind of fun to drive.

70. I live in a safe neighborhood.

29. 6th largest city in Texas!

35. You know you want to.

40. I have MREs available to use for any spontaneous camping trips.

52. Time to catch-up on your life.

63. I won't be making it to California for November.

72. You're missing out on all of my craziness.

82. You need a vacation.

95. I need to see some familiar faces.

38. Good, clean fun! But I don't mind get a little dirt on my clothes either.

42. I haven't had much bad traffic experience here in El Paso (then again, I leave for work at 5:10 in the morning).

56. Free hugs!

62. You can mark "Texas" off of your list of life-long goal of states to vist.

85. There's a Spanish radio station that plays a variety of English rock and alternative songs that you don't hear as often.

98. Carpe diem!!

68. I'm running out of reasons, but there really are more...

78. Complimentary sopapillas at Mexican restaurants. I have never seen that before.

46. Guadalupe Mountains National Park

74. "El Paso is like a big ugly wart, but it grows on you." -- Brother Jessop

87. I have hope for some wildflowers in the spring.

93. You can get your "Jennette-ic" fix.

48. Big Bend National Park

87. Time spent with those you love is the best investment.

94. El Paso is not really a tourist trap.

91. There's actually a Vietnamese restaurant in El Paso. How's that for culinary variety?

53. You can put your sunblock to good use.

71. Adventure awaits you!

57. Did I mention that I miss you?

Ideas, Anyone??

I'm approaching a big milestone in my blogging life...the 100th post. I was wondering if there was a special topic I should do to commemorate my 100th post like I have seen other people do. Should I do 100 random facts, top 100 of something, post a question and get 100 comments (I like comments), etc...etc...?? Let me know and the one I choose will get a free mug. Well, maybe not, but at least a shout-out and maybe the respect of random strangers thinking, "Good one..."

Please comment, please...

Welcome Home

Here's some updates and randomness from the past couple weeks. I know, I've been slackin'.

* I made the 8.5 hour drive from San Antonio to El Paso on a pure sugar rush consisting of IHOP Nutella crepes for breakfast and a blue coconut creamfreeze from Sonic's when I reached my halfway point at Fort Stockton.

*When I got back, I wasn't sure if I was in El Paso because it was 74 degrees. I love coldfronts. Then I tried to re-program my radio stations, and sure enough, I was back in El Paso. One weird thing was that I found a Spanish station that occasionally plays some English alternative. Was that Pearl Jam that was just on?

*On a low note, when I got back I found out that my credentialing was not finished. I was told it would take another week before the next credentialing meeting. I was a bit disappointed. Then, 2 days before said credentialing meeting I found out that it would be another 3 weeks. I think I replied, if not shouted in my head, "You've got to be kidding me!!" "But you have a lot of stuff to do right?"said the lady in charge of my credentialing. Ummm, that's what I've been doing this past week. Why is it taking 3-4 months to get this done?? Needless to say, I was having feelings that were less than charitable to credentialing lady. Might I add, that I've never seen this lady in person? She's never there! Oh well, I guess I just have to continue to "flexecute."

*As part of my "flexecuting" I've started organizing the weekly medic training classes. My last one was on sore throat, and this week, by popular demand, it's sexually transmitted diseases. I have to alter my STI powerpoint presentation for a third version. Hopefully it will go over well.

*I have started doing sick call in the mornings. It stinks a little that I can't even write a prescription for something like Motrin. Tomorrow will be pretty busy since we get a lot of soldiers with post-weekend-itis. One of my partners likes to drug-test the repeat visitiors, especially those who come in on Monday mornings and it seems like the weekend had been a bit hard on them. Good idea. I'm still trying to learn the ways of chewing out soldiers who do dumb things. This may take some time. I did show less mercy on a private who was complainingg of coughing while exercising and at night after a cold two weeks ago. My prescription: Stop smoking!

*I do have my own office now! Complete with my name on the door. Oh, and I have my own stamp too. That one came at a cost. I think the lady in front of me was starting her own business and decided to order about 7 stamps and it took about 40 minutes.

*The first day I reported back, my commander said that he wanted to give the next Friday off to get some things done. I thought, okay, sure. After I found out that my credentialing will take a bit longer, I asked for an extra day off and changed the destination on my pass form. I got a plane ticket to California and flew in Thursday night. One of my first stops after I arrived was of course, to get an In n' Out animal style cheeseburger. Much of my weekend was spent attending the annual California Academy of Physician Assistants annual conference (couldn't believe this was my 6th time going) in Plam Springs. There were some good lectures, good advice ("Deep down, everyone wants a rectal exam."), brushed up on my suturing skills, cheered for USC as they won the College Bowl, and saw some good friends and former classmates that I had not seen in over a year. I was also very fortuante to spend most of my weekend in air conditioning, since it was over 100 wherever I went.

*I recognized the big difference between Texas drivers and California drivers: Speed. Californians like it. I had not driven that fast over the speed limit in a long time.

*After the conference I would drive back home and spend the rest of my waking hours visiting with friends. It was so good to see so many faces. I don't know how I know so many awesome people. The five hours of sleep every night was defiantely worth it. On my last day in California I stopped by the DeMaria quads. I can't believe they're walking!

Busy day tomorrow, and I have a mosquito with a death wish to take care of.

OBC Pictures

Here are some pictures from the past couple months.
San Antonio as seen from the temple (downtown is the fuzziness on the horizon).

Home sweet home. The tent I shared with 28 other ladies.

Cloudy skies were a rare but welcomed event. We were hoping to get some rain, but it didn't happen.

After the gas chamber: Feel the burn!! I really am trying to open my eyes.

The 2nd most popular mode of transportation (second to walking)
.

Remembering the Alamo.

Chillin' with the Dixons at the Houston Waterfall

Feeding turtles at the Houston Arboretum

Texas State Capitol in Austin

San Antonio Temple

Ketchup

It's a bit hard to sum up the last few weeks, but I'll try. Still will have to wait until I get back to El Paso for some pictures.

*Here are some firsts: First pedicure (believe it or not, and after field training -- oh how needed it was!), first time feeding turtles, first Korean BBQ, chest tube insertion, and Wii experience (bowling, tennis, and boxing).

* I have to take back what I said about bees in my last post. There were a couple mornings where they were really, really bad when I was trying to eat breakfast. Stupid bees...

* The last week of field training seemed to go by quickly. I do miss the familiar call of the loudspeaker shouting, "Attention on the FOB!" "Time: Now," and "That is All." And the morning MJ/NKOB/Vanilla Ice music. We had some mass casualty drills and those were pretty fun. We couldn't use blanks that day so I had to verbally shout "Bang! bang!!" when I was on the guard tower and under attack. That's probably the reason why I got a fake knee injury and my partner was severely "wounded." I got to be the PA for aid station at the base and it was a good experience. The doc and I pushed 43 patients through in 1 hour! It was the first time I really had to do anything closely medically related in the past month. I love my job.

*I started coming up with a new song parody as I was cleaning my weapon to the tune of David Archuleta's "Crush" - which really was playing while I was cleaning it. "And you know this crud ain't going away-y-ay-y-ay-yaaaaaaaahh..." It was quite a long and tedious process.

* I had a wonderful time in Houston for a weekend visiting my friend Laura from PA school and her husband Cisco. We went indoor ice skating and to the Houston Arboretum. I'm going to miss the trees when I go back to El Paso, but I enjoyed the weekend while it lasted. If you're in the Houston area, apparently Lupe's Tortilla makes some really good fish tacos.

*I graduated from OBLC! I guess. It's weird thinking that I gradated when I still have a couple weeks of class left. The PA track also missed the ceremony because we were doing the Tactical Combat Medical Care (TCMC) course. TCMC was a great experience and it really made me appreciate what combat medics go through. My motto is: Learn/Train like your life depends on it, because it does.

*Fake blood is not easy to get out. Luckily I used my "field" pants, as they are now designated. Darn red food coloring...

*My California peaches let me down. Won't go into details, but I did call the grocery store to give them a heads up. Fortunately, it was only the girl next to me that noticed when I had a mild freakout and threw my peach back into my bag.

*There are some really ugly birds around here. I don't know what kind they are, but they look like diseased, strung-out, balding mini-crows.

* The San Antonio temple is very beautiful! It always feels like home, no matter where I am. I hope I can make it back again before I leave San Antonio.

*I've been enjoying a few other attractions of San Antonio. I was able to go to Sea World and Six Flags over Labor Day weekend. They're not quite like their California equivalents, but they were pretty fun.

*San Antonio finally got some rain!! It makes for a bit of mud around here, but it's been great.

So I finish this next week, drive back to El Paso and report back to duty next Friday. Back to the real world.

Week 2 of Field Training

I'm officially done with my second week of OBC! It seemed to go a bit faster than the first. Here are some things that happened:

*It didn't start out great. We had to report at 4:30 in the morning and knew that we had a long wait before we could get our weapons. That morning a new rule was instituted that we could not sit down unless we were eating. The week before we waited over 4 hours for the arms room to open up, so this made me a little cranky. Sometimes the time management is "menos eficaz" (less-effective).

* I found an evening of cooler, cloudy weather has a mildly intoxicating effect. Add some Erasure music playing over the loudspeaker and I became a bit giddy. Multiple this happiness with an instigated rule that we did not have to carry our lightening-rod weapons outside for the rest of the evening. Oh, the joy!! Some of the other music selections that were played over the loudspeaker included Vanilla Ice (my tent did get a premier of "Eyes, Eyes, Baby"), MC Hammer, LL Cool J, Michael Jackson, and New Kids On the Block. I waved my canteen to "Hangin' Tough" but found the whiny "I'll Be Loving You, Forever" to be a bit annoying.

* I survived the gas chamber! It's known as the "Mask Confidence" course and I do have great confidence in my gas mask. I was in a group of about 12 people and was led into a small room that pumped some sort of gas. The skin on our necks and hands burned as did some stretches and jumping jacks, and then we had to individually take off our mask and state our rank, full name, social security number, and where we were from. Some of the people in my group made it look so easy. When my turn came, I took a deep breath in, took off my mask, and proceeded to choke and cough my way through my words. It was almost like a drowning sensation while eating a jalapeno kind of feeling. Good time, good time.

*I had convoy operations training one day and started off in a simulator. I got to be the gunner in my group (stand through a hole in the "hummer" and shoot a really, really, large machine gun) and it was really awesome. During our field practice my job was to do security which entailed lots of kneeling on a very hot afternoon , and the radio person. While I was doing my radio job I missed out on the big "attack." On Thursday I did MOUT training which includes kicking doors, clearing rooms, and shooting enemies. That was pretty crazy yet fun too. This next week there is supposedly going to be some war games, woohoo!!

*I'm becoming more accustomed to bees and other stinging insects. There's always a lot of them during meal times and they just don't like to leave me alone. One of them suffered death by gravy. I do draw the line when they enter my tent. One victim suffered death by Blackhawk boot.

*The culinary highlight of field food this week was chicken. This was especially exciting after an encore of weird meatballs.

*I did make up for the MREs this week with some good food this weekend. Some friends and I went to a cool little dive in San Antonio called The Cove. It has its own car wash and has an indoor laundromat. It was nice enough to sit outside and we caught the last part of a local act in the var room. The food was amazing! It was all organic and we shared a vegetable appetizer that included falafel, naan, hummus, and sweet potatos. Most of the people had the bison burger and I tried the lamb burger with latin spices and sweet potato fries. Sooo good!! I tried some of the homemade ginger ale which was pretty good but really strong. My taste buds were on overload! Highly recommend this place!

* I ended this week with a wonderful visit with my friend Laura from PA school and her husband and met some of her sibs. It was a great afternoon and so fun to catch up. I may visit her in Houston in a couple weeks. Good times!

Stay tuned for more adventures next week! Last week of field training!

1st Week of Field Training

Here are some thoughts and experiences from my first week of field training. It has been a lot different from the previous 3 weeks of "death by Powerpoint."

* It's still been pretty hot. There have been a few heat injuries, especially amongst my platoon. This week we're suppose to start our physical training again. Oh, how I'm looking forward to that!

* I think the most beautiful sight I saw was the porta-potty maintenance truck pull up. It almost brought a tear to my eye...well, maybe not. It was still rather exciting. Those things can smell pretty bad. I also learned it's best to get in line early for meals, as the line backs all the way up to the latrines.

* I've been getting accustomed to the MREs (meals ready to eat). I had quite a hit of indigestion after the first two. I'm even starting to get use to the rehydration salts, which tasted pretty nasty in the beginning. It's been nicknamed "sweat water."

*I survived land navigation. I've developed a greater appreciation for safety eyewear, patrol cap, and uniform. The daytime course had me going through a lot of branches and night-time I plowed through quite a bit of cactus.

*With all the bruises I've managed to acquire, I'm starting to look like a human Dalmatian.

* Often in the morning and during the few rest breaks there's music played over the loudspeaker. This included a wide variety of classics including Tiffany's "I Think We're Alone Now." One of the first mornings we were awoken by some weird movie soundtrack with a little girl crying, "Daddy!! Don't leave me!"

* My battle buddy had her birthday while we in the field. I bought her some lunch from the "gut truck" to spare her an MRE.

*I have to have my weapon - an M-16 - tied (literally) to me practically 24/7. Even when we use the latrines. I feel like it's my long lost conjoined twin. I named it Enrique. I don't know if Enrique and I will be reunited again for this next week. He will always be my "first"...

* I felt like I may have cheated on Enrique when I did my 9mm pistol training. I did do a lot better on the range with the pistol than with the M-16. I'm sorry Enrique...

* My shower Friday night was the first shower I had since Monday morning and it felt soooo good. Loved it.

* This weekend went way too fast. Part of it must have been the fact that I slept until noon on Saturday. Yep, I was that tired. One of the highlights was taking advantage of Sonic's happy hour. So many drink choices!! I was already thinking of my next drink before I finished my blue coconut cream slush. It hit the spot.

4 a.m. Monday morning comes way too early. There's sure to be more adventures this week.