A challenge.

I am sure that I'm not to first to admit this, nor shall I be the last. I am completely obsessed with the image hosting site, Pinterest. 


I currently have 1,369 pins and 23 boards. Holy Crap. 


I pin everything on my pinterest - makeup and fashion ideas, wedding plans, recipes, home decorating ideas, gift giving ideas, and don't even get me started on my massive Harry Potter nerd board. 


This is one of the most helpful websites for organizing the things that I am passionate about, but I find that all I'm doing with those things is pinning them. I'm not putting any of those things to use.


So I am creating a challenge for myself. I am going to complete 30 things through-out all of my boards before I pin anything else to them. They can be small things or large things, like creating a slip cover for my couch or making a braided headband from an old shirt. 


Let the creativity begin!

Phlebotomy.

Frustration is definitely running rampant in me. I would say as of now, but the frustration really started about a year ago. 

I am frustrated simply because I feel inadequate. 

I was accepted into a fantastic Phlebotomy program a month before I graduated high school and completed the program a month after I graduated. I received a perfect score on my certification test and was top in the class for painless draws and locating difficult veins. I have a calm demeanor and I take great pride in the skills I have learned and will continue to develop.

But, I can’t get a job. From here stems the frustration. I have submitted 33 phlebotomy applications to numerous labs, hospitals, dialysis centers, and cancer centers, but have yet to receive an interview, or even as little as an email or call back.

Its because I have no experience. There is no place around me that accepts volunteer phlebotomists and I would have to join another program in order to receive an internship, that wouldn’t be paid. So in order to acquire experience, I have to already have it.

I used an entire $2,500 scholarship to pay for my program, which forced me to take some student loans when I first started attending college. I have a minimum wage job in a gift shop, but I need more money to pay my bills and pay for my wedding that has been pushed off a year because of my financial inadequacies. So, financial frustration is also weighing down on my shoulders. 

I’ve stopped in to the places where I applied. I have called the lab managers. I have visited with the lab managers. I have asked the HR departments to forward my applications, which most of them say they’ve done. Nothing I do is getting me a job, and I have no more answers or ideas. 

Another thing that frustrates me, especially with phlebotomy, is that many people in this field are without formal training. I have witnessed countless unsafe practices, such as a woman removing a needle and getting blood on her ungloved hands and then moving to another patient without disinfecting herself. Or another woman completely disregarding the vein I politely asked her to use, causing her to collapse my vein, creating a 6 inch hematoma and severe a blood clot. I have also been ignored and treated without caring or compassion by more than one phlebotomist. 

It is uncaring, careless, and dangerous practices, like the above, that frustrate me even more because I know how much better I am than that. This is not saying I don’t and won’t make mistakes, or that I am a better person than they are, but I know I will never do anything to endanger the patients or my own safety simply out of stupidity and lack of education.

I would love to be employed by a lab or hospital, just so I can show them some of the highest quality of work they have ever seen from a phlebotomist who cares about each patient, takes all necessary safety precautions, and strives for nothing less than the absolute best.

And, if you are a prospective employer who is somehow reading this, please, call me.

Number 95.

I remember September 18, 1996 like it was yesterday. I was 4 and woke up that morning to go to pre-school. I got all dressed and ran across the field to my Grandparents house. I saw my grandpa sleeping in his favorite chair by the fire place and did what I always did first thing in the morning, I ambushed him. I sat in his lap and watched my cartoons and drank my hot chocolate until I had to go to school. 


I didn't understand why my mom was crying when she picked me up later. I got home and no one was around. I ran to my grandpa's chair to tell him I was home, but he wasn't there. I walked into the laundry room and my cousin was sitting on the stairs. I sat down next to her and asked her what was wrong, and she started crying.


"Grandpa died." 


Those words will forever be ingrained in my mind. I didn't know what they meant then, but in retrospect, my grandpa has been one of the most important men in my life. And on the 15th anniversary of his death I went to visit him. I brought him some beautiful flowers and told him how much I missed him. I didn't feel sad though, I felt peaceful because I knew he was in a better place than he ever was here.


I could go into the many achievements of his, but his most important was how well he could hold our family together. He kept everyone in line and he was not gonna take crap from anyone. And for that I greatly respect the man that he was.

I love you Grandpa.