Today seemed to go by in a blink of an eye. I feel like I did so much and it's leaving me with a content, satisfied feeling that just makes me smile.
It started off with me having to go on a service project for my First Year Seminar class, which every freshman in college is required to take. My FYS class worked with Pastor Louis Colon of Heart and Soul Church in the inner city. We helped the church with their monthly food distribution to the needy families who live on the streets surrounding the church. It's always interesting to see how different from you live, and it was definitely different to be invited into some of these homes to deliver groceries. Many of these people weren't horribly impoverished, but they definitely were grateful for the assistance. Single mothers living in a house full of children, a family living off of unemployment, I know I will be praying for these people in the weeks, and months, to come.
After I returned to Roberts from the FYS project, I had to get ready to go out with a couple friends to Waterstreet Music Hall downtown. One of my friends, Paul Rankin, was performing some acoustic songs and a bunch of us went to go support him. Paul played a great show, and I really had a blast hanging out at Waterstreet for the night.
As for my heart, I've been taking it easy for the most part, today's really the first time that I haven't rested a ton since last Saturday. I haven't had any caffeine in a week, I've been getting lots of sleep and drinking lots of water, I've held myself back for the most part when I've wanted to be crazy. It's just going to be a long, steady build up back to normal. Please keep me in your prayers as I'm still walking through this mess, I really appreciate it.
Now! I do believe that it is time for me to head off to bed! Goodnight!
The strangest thing happened to me last night. I had gone to ballroom dancing club at 8pm, and we were sitting and talking about different scheduling things that were going on when suddenly I felt my heart rate speed to an extremely fast pace. I started taking deep, even breaths, not completely sure of what was going on. When it didn't calm down after a couple minutes, I decided to step outside for some fresh air. When it still didn't calm down, I went back in, grabbed my roommate and my stuff and we headed back to our dorm. What I was thinking was that I wanted to talk with my RA. You see, Laurie, my RA, is a third year nursing student. I figured that she would let me know if I was overreacting or if it was something a little more serious.
My heart rate had slowed some over the course of my walk back to my dorm, but it was still rather fast when I got back. I can honestly say that I hadn't been that scared in a long time. I was so scared that when I walked into Laurie's room and started to talk to her about what was going on, I started to cry. I don't remember the last time I cried before that. She had me lay on her bed as she checked my blood pressure and heart rate. She confirmed that it was rather fast and that she wanted to call my doctor. When she didn't get a hold of my doctor, she made the decision that she wanted me to go to the hospital. We called my mother and told her what was going on and she told us to go to Highland Hospital because of how calm an emergency it usually is. We decided that it would be the best place to go, and mom told us that she'd meet us there. I got up and we started walking to my friend Jen's car, but I barely made it half way there when my heart rate started sky rocketing again. We walked back to Laurie's room and she called the ambulance. I hated the fact that I was making such a scene, knowing full well that people on campus would be talking about the girl that got taken to the hospital in the ambulance, but I really didn't have any other choice. The ambulance came and hooked me up to an EKG and a heart rate monitor, and we headed off to Highland Hospital.
When I got there, they hooked me up to another EKG monitor, heart rate monitor and blood pressure monitor. My heart rate was still rather high ranging somewhere between 100 and 130-something. They decided to do some blood work, taking a bunch of different sized vials of blood and then sticking an iv in my arm, thinking that they might give me fluids in case of dehydration.
They ended up flooding my system with 2 liters of fluids, which seemed to drop my heart rate some. When my blood work came back, it was all normal. There seemed to be no apparent reason for it to have happened, so at 2:30am they decided to release me with instructions to follow up with my primary care doctor in order to get a holter monitor. I'm not sure how long I'll have to wear it or if it'll even get me more answers than I have now.
As for right now, I'd appreciate your prayers and support. I don't know what's going on, and, as you can clearly understand, this slightly unnerves me. I can tell that there's something that's still not right with my heart beat, and I'm hoping that this eventually calms down.
Thursday night, I ventured to Water Street Music Hall for a concert. It was Tyrone Wells and The Myriad with Matt Hires. Now, the real reason that I went to the show was to see The Myriad. I have been following their music for a while now, and when I heard that they were coming to the area, I was ecstatic. You see, for the past year they haven't been touring at all, so the fact that they came to Rochester this tour was amazing in my mind. So, when I heard they were coming, I found a friend, Jen, who would go with me and we bought tickets for the All Creatures Tour.
When we arrived at Water Street, we found it to be a smaller venue, which was nice. There were cute little tables set up near the stage and Jen and I grabbed one to sit at during the concert. We were literally five feet from the stage. It was amazing.
The thing about The Myriad at this concert was the fact that it was a stripped down acoustic version of most of their songs. Their bassist and lead guitarist are no longer with the band, so they are left with just a handful of their original guys.
Although they didn't have all the original members of the band up there, I felt as if they did a great job. I loved watching them play and listening to their music.
After the concert, Jen and I went back to the merch table and ended up talking with the merch guy for a while. I had purchased a couple of their cd's earlier, considering the fact that they were selling a cd bundle of all of their cd's for $15 (and the merch guy threw in a Myriad poster too!), I couldn't pass it up! So, I had already been acquainted with the merch guy, AKA Foster. Yes ladies and gentlemen, Foster is this kid's real name. The thing about Foster was that he was obviously hitting on my friend and I, but hey, the kid gave me a poster, so I can't really complain. The other perk about this was the fact that when we went back to the merch table and the band members weren't out there, we asked Foster if and when the guys were coming out and he called them. Couple minutes later the guys come out and introduce themselves to Jen and I. The only thing that I was really bummed about was the fact that I didn't get to meet Jeremy Edwardson, the lead singer. You see, I have a friend who REALLY looks like Jeremy, and I wanted to get a picture with him so I could show my friend. But, you can see for yourself..... Which one's in the Myriad???
If you guessed the one on the left.... you are correct! I am friends with the guy on the right and the one on the left is in the Myriad. I have to tell you, it's a little freaky how much they look alike. But, I didn't get to meet Jeremy (the one on the left) and I was sad about that. I did, however end up talking with the drummer, Randy, for quite some time. One of the reasons that they haven't been on tour as of lately is the fact that Randy was diagnosed about a year ago with bone cancer.
He's been on chemotherapy for almost a year now, and the doctor cleared him to tour. They were saying that Randy had gone through a session of chemotherapy the day before they left for the tour. When I was talking with him, I found him to be the most positive, thankful person I have ever meant. He was so happy to be on tour again and able to drum again. He seemed to love getting to meet new people again, and seemed to truly enjoy talking with me. I loved talking with him for the simple reason that he encouraged me to be more thankful for what I have in my life. I guess I can only hope to be as thankful for life as he is.
I know it's been a while since I posted, and for that I apologize. Although, I do not apologize for the fact that my life is insane. I had 3 exams over the course of last week and spent most of my days (and nights) studying for them. I feel as if I did fairly well on them, but you never know until you get the test back.
At Robets we have this thing called the One Act festival. About a week ago I auditioned for the One Act festival and auditioned for a couple different parts in different one act's, including The Devil and Daniel Webster, and The Ferris Wheel. The Devil and Daniel Webster is a big company play whereas The Ferris Wheel is just two characters, a boy and a girl. When the cast list went up for all the different one act's, I was pleased to see that I had gotten the role of Dorie in The Ferris Wheel. Being a one act that consisted of only two characters, I have a fairly big role in it. ;)
It has been raining a lot on campus lately. With that big front that came through, it was basically raining constantly for days. I got sick of this very quickly. My feet and the bottoms of my pants were wet all the time and I, like most somewhat sane people, do not enjoy this at all. I, being the somewhat rational person that I am, thought of several different ways to solve this problem. I could wrap my feet and legs in plastic wrap. I could waterproof my sneakers and pants. I could drench my entire body so my legs and feet feel no different. No matter how hard I thought about any of these solutions, none of them completely felt right to me. While walking to class in the rain one morning, I saw something that set a light bulb off in my head. Rain boots! What an ingenious idea! So, I bought myself a pair of rain boots.
I love my rain boots. I really do. If you know me at all, you know I've been loving patterns lately, especially plaid. My backpack is plaid. I usually wear a plaid shirt. My jacket is plaid. It's a LOT of plaid. And now I have hounds tooth patterned rain boots too. I've decided to call myself the patterned mess when it rains for the simple fact that I walk around in my plaid jacket with my plaid backpack and my hounds tooth rain boots. But, you know what? I'm happy just the way I am, patterns and all.
In fact, when I got my rain boots, I was so ecstatic about A) being able to walk around outside without getting soaked, and B) being able to be a patterned mess, that I ran around outside as much as I possibly could. I found a ginormous puddle, or a shallow pond depending on where you're from, and ran through it full speed laughing. I ended up soaked. Apparently even rain boots do not have the power to keep you entirely dry when you run full speed through three inches of water. *Shrug*
Oh, and meet Megan, AKA Toby. I hang with her a bit considering she is in two of my classes and lives on my floor. A little bit crazy, but she keeps me entertained.
