Eighteen and counting

It is HOT! When I left for work on Wednesday morning it felt like a nice summer day as though I was standing in the shade back in Utah. If it already felt like this before 9:00 a.m. then I knew I was in for a treat later that afternoon! Sure enough, after work, two steps outside of the air conditioned entrance, I felt the wall of heat like I had entered a sauna! Hello Baltimore!

I was glad that the digitized sign for the bus said it was coming in two minutes and the bus after that in 26 minutes, so I waited. Six minutes later the next bus was STILL coming in two minutes. Twelve minutes later, the "two minute" bus was "arriving." It was a no show.

I almost walked home. The thought of me walking farther than 50 yards in heat that would leave me nothing more than a puddle made me reconsider and decide that fourteen minutes was not that long to wait for the next bus.

When that bus came, so many people piled on that I stepped on someone's foot. Sorry Mr. I-don't-know-you-but-I'm-not-going-to-ask-your-name!

This week I feel like I have just discovered the blog world and felt the urge to stalk people and their blogs. It has been really fun to see what I have found. The internet is so big! I don't think that I have actually ever considered the impact that it has on me.

I can not even imagine going through school without the internet and the functional uses of it! I am so spoiled! I also think it amazing that I am typing letters on a keyboard and it can be "posted" and seen by my family and friends on the other side of the country! Okay, I know that was a delayed reaction to the internet, but I think it just hit me --- we are so lucky!


On Monday, as I was leaving the hospital, I encountered an alarm. I had taken the elevator down to the first floor, and then as I was walking the main corridor to get outside, an automated voice came on the intercom and said there was a confirmed Code Red in the children's section and all employees should follow protocol. Little white lights on the ceiling, stationed every thirty feet or so down the hall, were flashing. Since I was closer to leaving the building than I was going back to the lab, I continued outside. 


Code Red is the emergency for a fire. I hope no one was hurt. I did not hear anything about it later, so I assume everything played out fine. 

Besides really hot weather, it has also been rainy this week in Baltimore.

I do love it when it rains. To me, the world is beautiful when it rains. Most people do not seem to like it very much. They usually go around and grumble about how the sky is gray and gloomy, and everything is wet. 


I love it. I love water. Having a gray sky draws attention to the colors of the city: the buildings, trees, and people are vibrant and filled with expressions. Besides, I think the wetness reminds me about LIFE. Water makes things fresh and restores life; that's just the way things are. We each have the agency to choose how we want to see it. 

Also this week: three people in the lab learned that I am 18 years old. Here we go again . . . . I got on the topic with Kristin and Lori (both in the lab) because of another boy here that just graduated from high school. I feel bad for him because he acts so awkward sometimes. "You have to give him a break, he is just eighteen." That's when it came out, "So am I, but that doesn't mean . . ." *Que freak out*

Just kidding, there was not a freak out, but they were both a tad bit surprised and wanted to know how I was so young with my experience . . . so predictable. I think there have only been a select few individuals that have not reacted in the same manner. It's understandable; I would want to know what was going on too.

I got to thinking though, about how I am so young, and also about how short life really is. I can hardly believe that I have lived 18 years and I have not experienced that much! I better get cracking if I want to get through my GIANT list of things I want to do in my lifetime.