Tom and Wendy should currently be moving into their new home. Mom and Dad are currently building their new home. Adam and I are about to go to Cove to visit his 'rents and fix up their computer. We're taking Evan and Ben (Not cousin Ben) and Josh with us to visit. I'm sure it'll be fun. We should technically be leaving right now, so I'll probably go do that shortly. I'm leaving tomorrow to go to Andrews with my sister for my dad's retirement shin-dig. I'll be back on Wednesday, I think. Misti, you should come visit. Did you get an invite to the retirement party thing? It's on Tuesday night at the Country Club. I want you to go. If you bring Davis, I'll hold him and take care of him all night for you. :) I miss you guys. See you soon.
says MarissaD at 9/25/2004 01:06:00 PM
September 21, 2004
Okay, so. That burger joint job I was telling you about before... Yeah I quit doing that today. There were a few instances of people just not having any idea what is and isn't appropriate in the workplace. One of those people being a manager. Needless to say, I finished out my night and called the manager that I actually respect and let him know I wouldn't be going back and why. I can fill people in on all that in person if anyone would like to know. It's nothing really big, but it's also nothing I'll put up with for $6.50 an hour, ya know?
Second point, Greg, now that I know who you are TATERSALAD BOY, I setup your blog and everything is ready to go. I just need you to email me so I can send you some instructions and your username and password. Your web address will be http://tatersalad.bemoedee.com. Write that down. I'm sure Saleeeeem will be thrilled to read your blog. :)
Oh also, Andra, since I will not be working Monday, that means I can go to Hico quite a bit earlier than anticipated. Yay for that.
I think it's bedtime man.
says MarissaD at 9/21/2004 01:57:00 AM
September 17, 2004
I really should be watching my TiVo'd Big Brother 5 right now, but these fingers need to do some typing.
I don't remember if I blogged it or not, but when I took the EMT-B state test, I failed it by 2 points. Since then I tried to convince myself that it's honestly not what I need to do because, seriously, my mental health is rather fragile and from what I understand, the medic field is one that puts the most mental strain on any human being ever. Easy enough. I failed the test, I'm weak minded, I'm not supposed to be a medic. Well, that's nice and all except that now I live in the city and I hear and see sirens and ambulances everywhere. And every DAMNED time I see them and hear them, all I can think about is being in the back of that rig.
Before I found out that I didn't pass the test, I talked to the city here about work or volunteering. I left my number with the reception lady and no one ever contacted me about it, so I took that as another sign. Today a paramedic came into the little burger joint I've been working in and I chit chatted with him a little. I told him I was an EMT, which, technically is a lie, but I wanted to see what he would say about working there. He immediately asked if I was interested in volunteering there. There being West Lake, which is about 30 minutes south of where we live. Now, if I took Pflugerville not calling me back as a sign, I have to take this as a sign too, right? I know it won't be that hard to retake the test. It just costs a little monies and I'm pretty sure I just have to retest for the written exam.
I know that if I don't do this and volunteer and get some experience under my belt, I'll regret it for the rest of my life. Adam and I have talked about it a kabillion times and I know he's sick of hearing about it. He tells me I should go for it, but if there's any sign of it breaking my spirit, that I have to quit immediately. I agree.
So.... I guess now I have to get right up and do it. I'll get back to ya.
says MarissaD at 9/17/2004 11:41:00 PM
September 15, 2004
P.S. Yes, we got a car. Adam and his dad found a 2003 Dodge Neon and we likes it very much.
P.S.S. I added a link to moms blog.
says MarissaD at 9/15/2004 10:32:00 PM
September 14, 2004
Today I was reminded why it's a good thing to be a hermit.
I got a ticket a few months ago so I had to take defensive driving and mail that off. I got the defensive driving certificate in the mail today, so I thought I would mail it. Well, then I got to thinking, the certificate has my married name on it, while they have my maiden name in the system for the ticket I got. I thought it would be nice if I wrote a little letter explaining the difference in names. Then I thought it would be appropriate if I mailed a copy of my marriage certificate and a copy of my updated drivers license. "Good thinking. Way to stay ahead of the game, champ," I told myself. Hmph.
We don't happen to have a copy machine here in our little abode, so I went to the apartment office knowing they had a 'Business Center' that probably had a copy machine I could use. When I got there, it had a little pass bar on it which I knew required a fob. A fob is this little piece of plastic that tells doors that I'm a resident of the complex and that I can use the facility. I knew my fob didn't work, as I had tried it twice before. I thought I'd give it a whirl anyway. No luck. So I went to the office to ask that my fob be fixed. The fob was fixed, as it apparently wasn't even in the system. Great! Back to the 'Business Center.'
I successfully gained entry and went directly to the copy machine. I asked a nearby computer user if she knew how to use it, "no, not really." She never even glanced in my direction. So, I put in my paper to be copied and push the big green button. A little number pad beeped at me and the machine didn't make my copy. I figured I had to have a credit card or some super secret magic code to make it copy for me. I thought creatively. I tried my apartment number, the address of the complex, the area code, zip code and finally the 4 digit number that was taped to the number pad. None of them worked.
I went back to the office lady to ask how to use it. She looked up my apartment number and gave me my very own super secret magic code. "It's in the paperwork we gave you when you moved in." ... Thanks lady. Back to the 'Business Center of Hell.'
I place my paper back in to the copy machine, punched in my super secret magic code and pressed the big green copy button. This time the number pad ON the copy machine beeped at me and it didn't make my copy. I noticed a red blinking something or other, so I thought maybe it was out of paper. I opened the doors that looked like they held paper and indeed, they held paper. And it was a lot of paper. Okay, not out of paper. That's about the extent of my training with copy machines, so I did what any normal thinking person would do. I pushed the big green copy button about seventy-two times. I thought about pushing it to the beat of some popular rap song and forcing the computer people to play Name That Tune with me, but I'm pretty sure they wouldn't have been amused.
My husband would've appreciated it. Nyah.
I went back to the office and told the lady their 'Business Center from Hell' copy machine wasn't working right. She asked what I needed copied, so I handed her my letter, deoderant ridden marriage license, updated drivers license and a copy of the original letter given to me by the cop. She was a little hesitant to copy the marriage license, but I assured her, "Don't worry, it's nothing that bad."
I sat down on the chair to wait for my precious copies to be delivered to me and peered out the window, across the parking lot to the mail drop box. Then I looked at the candy bowl and, as if God was intentionally telling me not to ever eat a piece of candy again, the heavens opened wide and began to weep for me. In agony. In screaming, thunderous agony. Okay you get it. It started raining a lot. Neat.
She came back with my copies and I stuffed all those papers into the little envelope. She was actually very gracious and offered to let me leave the letter with them to go out with their mail. That saved me from having to jaunt across the parking lot to the mail drop. It didn't stop me from the run across the rest of the complex back to my apartment.
There I sat, soaking wet. Contemplating why I thought today would be a perfect day to go outside. And of course I had to contemplate how to exaggerate this event into a harrowing tale of epic proportions. I had to. I'm a blogger.
says MarissaD at 9/14/2004 01:56:00 PM
September 10, 2004
Dr. Grotti republished her website. If you'd like to read all the trials and hearings she's been through, she has a narrated timeline up here.
says MarissaD at 9/10/2004 01:38:00 PM
September 06, 2004
Update: Dr. Grotti was released after 3 days in jail. Her lawyers presented their appeal to the judge and asked that she be released until the appeal trial. The judge granted their request. Now we wait some more.
Today, we're getting a car!!! My father-in-law, John is coming up to go find the car we need with Adam. My mother-in-law, Melanie, is coming to hang out with me so I don't have to witness what I understand is a gut wrenching experience. John apparently knows all the tricks of a car salesman and he's not one to put up with it. I'm taking Melanie's advice. No idea what we're going to do, but it won't be finaggling with a car salesman!!
Also, I got a little part time job as a cashier at a little restaurant down by where Adam works. Yay for productivity!
says MarissaD at 9/06/2004 10:06:00 AM
September 01, 2004
I really wish I could just whip out a quick explanation of what's going on with Dr. Drotti. I need to just sit and type it out. It's very long and can be confusing, but once you understand what went down, I have a feeling a lot of people would be pretty outraged. The very short part of the story...
A woman was brought into the ER. The ER did CPR on her for 65 minutes. At no time did they obtain a blood pressure or pulse (apart from DURING CPR, which creates an imitated pulse.) Dr. Grotti called the code and unplugged the lady from the ventilator. Almost another full hour later, the woman was having agonal respirations. Which are basically reflexive respirations caused by the brainstem, which is the last part of the brain to die. Dr. Grotti puts her finger over the ET tube to stop the agonal respirations. That is obviously the jolting factor that gets people a little worked up. No, that is not a commonly practiced procedure. Dr. Grotti self reported for it so it wouldn't be misconstrued. She has maintained since day one that doing that was unethical. But the woman had already been dead for over an hour. (Possibly more.) What she did caused no harm. She did not MURDER the patient. This is a quote from one of Dr. Grotti's lawyers.
"We are establishing a dangerous new precedent in the criminal justice system when a prosecutor can lead a group of untrained citizens to second-guess decisions that critical-care medical professionals are required to make every day in hospitals throughout this country," Jeff Kearney said.
That's right. There was a hearing in Austin in front of two Administrative Law Judges. They sat and listened to testimony specifically about this case and in the end, found that blocking the tube was unprofessional and unethical, but that Dr. Grotti had done NO harm to the patient. Unfortunately the ruling of this hearing only went to the medical board as a "suggestion". The medical board chose to ignore these findings, and after only two hours, they revoked Dr. Grotti's medical license. That was October 10, 2003. Seventeen days later, she was indicted for murder. A little over ten months is it? Now she's a convicted murderer and she's sitting in a jail cell?
I'm sorry, but there's something wrong with this whole mess. Something terribly flawed.
There's so much more detail to this story. So many other things that are blatant and make you want to scream "WHAT THE HELL??" So many things that make this all seem so ... wrong. I'll have to type out everything that I've heard and read and seen. It'll be long, but if anyone would like me to, I'll do that. And I've done this before. If you'd like to help Lydia out, you can donate here:
Lydia H Grotti, MD, FCCP
Legal Defense Fund
c/o USAA Federal Savings Bank
10750 McDermott Freeway
San Antonio, TX 78288-0544
Make sure you have the account
number on your check (#23382473)
Oh. A small P.S. if you're thinking about donating. There was some group that offered to pay for all of Dr. Grotti's legal defense. She was very excited about it. Then when her lawyers asked them to sign papers that basically said they didn't work for any opposing side, they vanished. Literally vanished and were never heard from again. Dr. Grotti has a defamation lawsuit with WFAA, a television station in Fort Worth. You do the math.
