Plasmapheresis

I'd like to tell the story of the time I went and donated plasma for money.

It was at 7 AM by the U of U ARUP so I just kept thinking this place is going to be legit! There won't be any creeps there at all. I get to the place and there is already about 6 people there waiting. Everyone is talking like they know each other and chatting it up pretty good. One lady is asking who everyone prefers to be stuck by and how she won't do it unless Mohamed sticks her. It was odd. I watch a very legitimate video on an unlegit TV in a scary room. After many different waiting periods and having to tell everyone that works there what my breakfast consisted of, it was a big waffle with peanut butter and syrup and a half a chub of chicken, I am brought through the screening and I had to get a physical too. As I wait I'm just hoping that my nausea will go away because 6:30 is not my usual time to eat a big waffle with peanut butter and a chub of chicken. So finally after some more waiting and drinking water and holding it because I can't go to the bathroom again (I had to pee in a cup earlier and I was still frightened by the bathroom), I get to the floor. The floor is where the plasmapheresis occurs. there is about 30 beds with what looks like a huge cassette tape player thing next to it. I sit down and guess who comes over? None other than Mohamed. Thats comforting. Then I look at his white smock... or rather a smock that was white at one point in its life here at the Life Sera plasma center. It looked like it was splattered with the blood of many victims. Mohamed was a butcher. I was going to die. It is really cold in the building so its almost impossible to make my veins pop up but the incomparable Mohamed stuck my arm perfectly. He then proceeds to tell me my rights as a donor and proper procedure if something goes wrong... I think. What I heard was, "sho if de macheen goes wrong duirring prrocedure den the blud mumble mumble emerrgensee mumble mumble but ees okay dis won't happen to you." They get me going on the machine (mine was named named Ralph, the machine across from me was named the Bloodinator 6000) and I put in my headphones and I pull out the Bon Appetit magazine I grabbed on my way to the floor. Mohamed reassures me that they will help me if anything goes wrong again, "eef you feel not sho goood rraize hcand." Two minutes later my body felt like I was being sucked dry! I'm tingling all over and everything sounds muffled. I 'raise hand' and Mohamed rushes to my rescue saying, "We have reaction!" After some menopause-like hot flashes they returned the blood to my system minus the 5 (big) vials of blood to test and the plasma they took out. I only ended up donating about 180 mL of the total 625 mL I was supposed to give of my yellowish plasma but I still got paid a cool $40. End of story not that traumatic except for the rest of my day I basically fell asleep whenever I sat down but it was an interesting experience... that I never wish to have again.

Beard Nation

So I was talking about hair and beard art. Here is proof. It is real and it is fabulous.

This man's name is Elmar Weisser of Germany and is the reining champion of the International Beard Competition in Anchorage Alaska competing in the free full beard category.

Here is some really cute wedding photography!

I'm going to go play with clay because Clint called me the other day and rekindled my desire to make some pots.

White Whine

SO once again the gravy train is not running past my house so I'm still very poor. My mom is making our yard very cute with flowers and all kinds of greenery. My dad is playing patriotic songs on the piano. There is a hurricane outside for some reason. My brain has been going 400 miles an hour for the past couple of nights and I've been getting some crazy dreams as a result.

Dream

So I started out in a haunted house thing but it was like a game where you had to accomplish something or find something in each room. It was all very dark and spooky but I didn't mind. Then somehow I was in class and I was talking to friends in front of me and someone behind me says "Hello Elise Chamberlain" and I turn around and its this hispanic girl and she says that I played her in young women regionals basketball and I was in the 16th ward and it was creepy to me that she remembered that long ago.

Then I was in this enormous wedding reception place. It was put together very poorly. In order to get to the next room you had to walk through other wedding receptions. They were all set up kind of like theaters with stadium seating and they each had a different theme. One had a straight up wall with little apartments or like box seats and each one had a striped or plaid awning and curtains in pink and white. It was a heinous room. Then I was in one that looked very professional and it had a financial business office in the back. I was with Tash and some guy but I don't remember who and we walked in without knowing there was a ceremony going on so we hurried to the back so we wouldn't be seen. There was an exit sign but when we followed it, it just led to a big safe. So somehow Tash and this guy get out without being seen and I'm still stuck in the back. Then I see that the whole audience stands up and I start running for the door but then they all sit down again and I dive for the floor and it felt very dramatic and I waited there on the floor till everyone stood up again for another part of the ceremony. In another room there were steps on the floor that were like plasticy but padded kind of like those padded toilet seats old people have. But they were all shaped like face profiles and painted to look like faces. SO I ran through and jumped around cause it was padded and landed lightly on my feet again. THEN another room had a big step thing that was covered in felt. Do you remember those felt story boards in primary? It was like a giant one of those and it was covered in little faces with holes in the eyes, ears, nose, and mouth. There were tiny plastic noses and eyes and ears that you could trade out and make different faces. And there were also little dresses and suits to put on the heads. It was like if Mr. Potato head and a paper doll had children. Next to me was a normal man size brown suit and I was looking in the pockets and my mom kept saying "Thats not Dad's suit! Thats not Dad's suit leave it alone! Well it has buttons on the pockets Dad would like that suit. Maybe I bought him that suit? Yeah I think I did buy that! Thats Dads suit." It was weird.

Then I was with Becca and Sarah in the main entry of the whole reception convention center place. Becca kept complaining about the shoes she was wearing and her dress was the wrong color. There were all these glass walls coming out of the floor and Becca kept makin eyes and smiling at the men on the other side of the glass.

Thats about all I can remember. My mom came in to wake me up for a walk this morning and I said I needed 30 more minutes and in that 30 minutes I dreampt all that!

Sorry I'm Late

So I finally am seeing some fruits to my labors in applying for jobs! I finally got a phone call back and I have an interview tomorrow so we'll see hoe that goes.

This video is amazing

I want to make something like that but it looks really hard! 

Early morning chats in the Hoe. Good for the soul.

OH! and I got me a 4.0! I feel pretty good about how smart my friends are. We are pretty much geneiousez.

So this last weekend I went down to Moab by the kindness of my sister Amber. We brought along Sarah and Becca and Katherine Lowe. It was a bueno vacation.

 

We went on a midnight hike up to Delicate Arch.

This is us under the arch.

I'm obviously still trying to figure out how to work my camera

River ratz.

 

Dead Horse Point. We took the most wonderful nap in the parking lot for an hour. The weather was perfect and I got this imprint of Amber's purse in my leg. Becca must still be tired.

  

We climbed upon rocks, did some Roga, rolled down the giant sand hill that Sarah had been waiting for years to do.

I didn't feel like getting sand in my underpants. 

We saw balancing rock and I wanted to push it over. Dumb rock.

I got some more pictures down in the slideshow at the bottom.

There was something on my lens so a bunch of my pictures have this little black dot friend.

Wolfmother

And today I love Wolfmother all over again.

Oh and I found a picture of exactly what the pretty ponies in my dream looked like!!

Except they had blonde hair and were much smaller. 

DVNO

This video has some awesome graphics.

This place has some awesome jewelry made of paper that I want to make!

Look up Frucci Design on etsy.

Dreams

So this was my dream last night. 

I was riding a golf cart at this pony farm in the desert and all the ponies had beautiful blonde curly hair and I was jealous. Then Becca came over while I was looking at the ponies and she was eating this alligator like a push pop just squeezing it out of its skin and eating the meat. Then somehow I got to this place kind of like a big Costco and Sarah was there in the parking lot on a motorcycle with all these attractive frenchmen and they laughed at me because I couldn't speak french. Then I go inside and Natasha and Tess are there and they are buying stuff from this stand and I was trying to talk to them but they ignored me. So I walked to the back and all this time I was wearing this red silk sheet and a belt around the center. So I walk to the back of this store and there is this big fat worker or something and he has this curvy sword and there are all these extra big sized kitchen utensils and I grab a giant spatula and I'm trying to fight him off and he flings the spatula out of my hand so I grab some big axe looking thing and I chop the sword out of his hand and take it. Then I don't remember but I remember something about dogs doing funny things and one had a really big tongue and used it as like a blanket or something and I ended up in this really modern house with white walls.

I think I had too many blankets on my bed last night.