A Library Of Living Life.

Spring has spring and summer is nearly over and the Treasure Valley is getting ready for Fall. Of course that’s the natural progression of life in Idaho, but it is still worth announcing. There is something about this coffee shop that I am sitting in right now. Yes, it takes 10 minutes to get a Latté post order. Yes, the coffee tastes terrible. Yes, I could have walked across the street to a better coffee shop. BUT, there is a sense of nostalgia at Thomas Hammer Coffee Roasters. I could be the original blue and white tile on the floor, or the window-walls that line the entire shop that make me feel comfortable here. At any rate, the feeling of protected exposure is worth the metallic tasting brown water. Sorry Flint.  It’s update time again.  I am finally in the business of making friends again. I’ve come to realize that I truly do not have friends that I hang out with regularly. Work friends are not friends. I do love my coworkers, but I can only talk about work a...

I can sleep easy again. The spell of unemployment depression is over and the bank account is starting to see the green (for now). Over the past 6 months, I have been working at a private practice in Garden City called the House of Hearing Audiology Clinic. It is a very delightful clinic, to say the least. I have had many mixed emotions about taking this position; excited, nervous, relieved, disappointed, empowered. Just every emotion under the sun, and moon, and stars, and all other planets, nebulas, black holes, dark matter, and all other crazy ass stuff floating around out there. If you've known me since starting my doctorate, you might know that I want to work in a hospital seeing both adults and pediatrics with a focus on diagnostics. Unfortunately, a private practice is extremely different. The private practice environment is very dialed in on hearing aid sales. There is a small portion on diagnostics, but the largest part is managing hearing aids and pushing new sales. ...

Remember those good ol' days when blogging was easy and felt like a necessity? Yeah, me neither, however, I do miss trying to blog. In an attempt to keep my brain in a relatively active state, I will try to keep an up-to-date blog. I hope that is vague enough. Recently, the most common questions I have received from friends, family, strangers, past coworkers, etc. are " How is the job hunt? Any leads? " Well to answer those questions simply, okay  and yes . Cryptic, I know. The former; Okay . I have found that apply for jobs is difficult when the applicant does not hold a current occupational license. In the state of Idaho, getting an audiology/dispensing license is dependent on have a few pieces of paper. 1) Application for Licensure, 2) $100 Application Fee, 3) Passing Score of National Exam (PRAXIS) Sent Directly from ETS, 4) Official Transcript with Degree Awarded, 5) Copy of Driver's License. The majority of these items were pretty simple to obtain. The big...

It is a good thing I was not born in a time period when documentation was important to the memory of a person or a culture. I am a terrible historian. If people had to rely on this blog to learn about my life or to know how I am doing, the vast majority of people would think I have either died or I was driven into seclusion. Contrary to the popular belief, I am not dead, nor have I abandoned all human contact to live in isolation. I am in fact very much alive. Sometimes I am so alive that I question if I am truly awake or if I have been dreaming. To explain what I mean, I will try to document over 1 year's worth of happenings. I find my ability to document anything these day (aside from patient charting) has significantly deteriorated. I blame it on the fact that I have to be a functional adult and be part of the real world. I do not have the luxury of tuning out a lecture or skipping a class to chronicle events, experiences, memories, thoughts, or happenings anymore. March 2...

I have made this a common topic on all of my social media outlets except for this one...so I believe it is about time I add a little blurb about it here. The big mysterious IT so happens to be an upcoming trip.  Waaaay back (3 years ago to be exact) I was given of a great opportunity to travel to Ecuador on a medical mission trip with a few of my professors. Unfortunately, because of political changes in Ecuador it was no longer safe for humanitarian groups to travel within the country. I was extremely disappointed by moved on.  FAST-FORWARD 3 YEARS Sitting in a cochlear implant meeting during a clinical rotation on December 10th, my phone starts blowing up! Text emails, phone calls and text messages from a professor... Um, HELL YES! To make the whole story shorter, Dr. Jennifer Holst, Au.D. tells me that she has been told about a medical mission trip to Peru that is looking for an audiology group to go. Without a doubt I accept. She proceeds to tell me that 5 days f...

Dear blogger world, It has come to my attention that I have not written a blog is a billion years. I apologize for this awful amount of time that has gone by. With the New Year coming up soon, there may be some new changes. I am not promising anything at this point, but I hope to become a dedicated blogger again. Let me update you. Firstly, The Boyfriend. Mike and I JUST celebrated our 3rd year anniversary. 3 whole years of Love, lust, stress, pessimism and everything in between. I realize I left with my last blog indicating that Mike was abandoning me. Let me clarify. He did NOT go across the country to an expensive school for his Masters degree. The Love of My Life decided it would be best for his schooling to stay at ISU for his graduate work, YAY!! Literally the most recent photo of us at the Pocatello Festival of 1,000 Santa Clauses like 4 days ago. I am just ridiculously still in Love with this man.  NEXT, I don't live in Pocatello anymore. I have moved to B...

Caution: This is my Feel Bad blog of the year.  Little over half way through the first semester of grad school and I feel like I am ready to give up. School is exponentially harder than I could have ever imagined. It isn't the coursework that is difficult, rather being able to manage time. It is so hard to make sure I set time aside for school, work, family, boyfriend, friends, and just for myself. I feel like school has taken over my life. Even though I have class on Tuesday and Thursday, I feel like every moment of everyday I am trying to find time to study, finish study guides, complete take home exams, work on projects, read all the articles and chapters of all my books, and do stupid assignments. When do I get to take a break and relax for just a little bit. I try to allow my weekends for me, but that just isn't possible. School has the majority of my time, and the other "free" time I have is dedicated to work. Unlike so many of the other grad students, I...

One of my life's goal has been fulfilled.  Remember that little concert I was excited for?  Well it happened!!! Boooooya!  Mika is officially my favorite performing artist, ever.  Lady Gaga was great, but Mika was simple amazing. The coolest part of the whole concert was how small of  a concert it was. Maybe 300 people max. It was such a  intimate setting and the whole concert was acoustic! HELL YES! All together, the whole day was super.  Day's agenda: Wake Up, smile at my boyfriend, shower, breakfast, The Winco, FORGOT the tickets, home, tickets, I-15 to SLC!  IKEA for candles, rods and hooks, Buca di Beppo, 30 minute hide and seek  with The Venue, Mika *angels sing hallelujah chorus*, drive home, bed at 2am. Be jealous! Getting kind of excited!! Yeah, this is my boyfriend...Attractive! Our "Not Impressed" faces. Then we experienced the awkward moment when we realized the shitt...

Sooooooo,  Just Sayin'.

Welp, here I am sitting...waiting for all the schools I applied to to lemme know how badly they want, or don't want me. The suspense is killing me. I am such an impatient person and having to wait months before I find out if I am good enough to attend a graduate program at several universities is just killer. I am a little panicked because my friend Shawna Del Rae heard that ISU is  only taking 6 new grad students this year. 6!!! And that this year the ISU Audiology  program has had the most applicants, ever. Great. I feel like I am in good standing  with the majority of the staff, but still...it is really scary knowing that  my future rests upon being chosen out of who knows how many  applicants. A little nerve racking. Yikes. Not only am I stressing about the possibility of NOT getting accepted  to a grad program, I am stressing about the size of my head It keeps getting bigger. Nonsense you say, NO, seriously...Proof. I hav...

I dunno what the hell is going on outside my apartment, but it sounds like a truck is repeatedly running over the curb, and hitting a metal garbage can  full of pop cans. Every time I look out the  window, there is no truck, and no metal can full of pop cans. Maybe I am losing it.  Ummmm, guess who is going to see Mika, LIVE in SLC?! That's right, this Homo! And guess who else? NATALIE FREAKING CUTHBERT!!! Eeeek!! We are gonna have an ultimate freak out!  I cannot wait!! It is gonna be one hellofa concert! Oh, I am taking Mike too :P He needs to meet Natalie. All I can say is this is gonna be one crazy weekend! Spring Break cannot come fast enough! 

For Starters, New Years Eve at Charley's with Mike Aka Boyfriend :) Now you all have seen a photo of him. He is real, no fake boyfriend here. Such a cutie, and Mike is cute too :P Myself with the lovely Wendy! Wendy is one of the sweetest individuals I have ever had the privilege to know.  Here are the Gays :) And some random Mini-Mexi-Mama. She was absolutely in love with all of us. Never got her name, but definitely snapped a photo of her with us Gays :) Gettin' my diggity dance on with Kaylee! Such a sexy gal!  Partying with Mary and the Gays. There is a lot of awkward hand placement here. The dancing crew! 3 years ago I met these lovelies at Charley's and they accepted me into their group. I could have never asked for greater friends. I owe a lot of my confidence to these 3 people. I love you Brad, Jodi and Robyn! Thank you for being so kind. Leave it to Derek to photo bomb a great photo with John! 12:00, Midni...

Holy Anti-Blog Batman! I can't believe I am really off  the blog train. I never thought this would happen. I was such an avid blogger before and now I rarely even check my  stats. So much for this being a great stress reliever.  We will see if I can get back into it. Neuro class is kicking my ass. I do not like this material. I used to think I was pretty smart, but when I am  in this class I just sit there not understanding what is happening. The thing that I do not really understand is  the size of the structures talked about in the class. I would like to know exactly how BIG a neuron is. Does a neuron stretch from the brain ALLLLLL the way to your toe? Or what? I just don't get it. Professors show you all these diagrams of what they look like, but they never tell you  the size of anything we talk about. Up until a year ago I thought  my lungs were each the size of basketballs.  Dear Professors of all kinds: I...

END OF THE SEMESTER!  Huzzah, I made it. It has been such an awful semester. One of the hardest I have had. I know I  say that at the end of each semester, but this time, I truly mean it. Not only was it the semester from Hell, but I am 100% convinced that one of my professors  H-A-T-E Hates me. I have had two separate  issues with this teacher. I guess I probably deserve  both of the e-mails I received from her... but it appears that she goes out of her way to  get under my skin.  First confrontation: In ALL of my Distance Learning classes there is this  student at the Meridian campus, let's call her Dirka-Dirka. She is one of the Non-Traditional students. Now I don't have anything against Non-Traditional students, I adore them. Proud that  they want to better their lives by furthering their education. ANYWAY, Dirka-Dirka has to make comments during every class period. And not just comments, but co...

Good God, where have I been? I swore that I would continue writing after my last absence...apparently that was a lie. As most of you know it is the New Year...2013! And we are all still alive. Not gonna lie, I was  a little nervous for 12/21/12. Effing Mayans, scaring the world like that. As for my life, what is going on? So much, but can be said in a single word. Bliss. Now come on, really? Bliss? Yes. Things in my life have  been going as planned, well planned as unplanned can get.  For NOW, lemme catch you up for the month of November. Last time I wrote, I finally got some Denver photos up. Since then, I have officially become  Not Gay, or feeling "whatever" about religion, but YES, IAR.. In A Relationship. As official as can get, FB official.  Is it silly that being in a relationship is such a big deal?  Nah, it is just such a great feeling. Forgot what it was like  to be in Like with someone that ACTUALLY...

Where has the time gone? Over 20 days since my last post.  I feel as if my neglecting school also means neglecting everything else in my life. I have given all my attention to Will and Grace as of late. I think it is time to give some lovin' to everything else in my life that I have let go.  It is home stretch for the semester. 3 more weeks and I am free to  sleep in, make as much Christmas candy as possible, read  every book in my apartment, celebrate, cuddle up while  the snow falls around me and that special someone (hopefully),  get my holiday shopping on, and just everything that comes with  Winter Break. I refuse to think about school for the time I  am out of class. What if  I slip and think about school? I will punish myself with NO hot cocoa for a whole day.  Now we all know that when the stakes are so high,  school will not even cross my mind.  Last week was Thanksgiving break and I,...

"Please be gay,  please be gay,  please be gay,  please be gay,  please be gay,  please be gay,  please be gay, please be gay, please be gay, please be gay, please be gay, please be gay, please be gay, please be gay,  please be gay,  please be gay,  please be gay,  please be gay,  please be gay,  please be gay,  please be gay, please be gay, please be gay, please be gay, please be gay, please be gay, please be gay, please be gay,  please be gay,  please be gay,  please be gay,  please be gay,  please be gay,  please be gay, please be gay, please be gay, please be gay.Please be gay, please be gay, please be gay, please be gay,  please be gay,  please be gay,  please be gay,  please be gay,  please be gay,  please be gay,  please be gay, please be gay, please be gay, please be gay, please be gay, please be gay, please be gay, please be gay,  please be gay...

Well today was the day. I finally turned on my heater.  I am so disappointed in myself that I did not make it until at least November. I even tried to tough it out by putting two comforters in my duvae cover. Negative. I failed.  I realized that I needed to actually turn it on when I was eating some food today that was super hot and when I opened my mouth to breathe I could see my breath. Why did I insist on keeping my apartment so cold? Because I dislike having to rely so much on something  as simple as heat...I am the same way with electricity. Old fashioned I guess. Conservation is the key. Last night was a delightful evening. It was date night with  Alexa and Lakota. I always love these nights we do, and I  wish we would be able to keep them going regularly, but  unfortunately we are all too busy with out own lives to actually keep it scheduled every week. Hopefully we will be able to actually hold these get togethers tw...

The day began out wonderfully... Woke up in warm bed, with a smiling face.  Went to kickboxing and kicked some boxes. Got a card from Natalie. Wearing my Lesbian sweater today. Then I check my email... "Jacob I had to review grades today for the department and find you may be in trouble....come see me so we can figure out a strategy to get your grade up." Great. And this is one of the classes that ACTUALLY counts.  It is all because I miss the stupid journal entries.  How do I miss these easy assignments? NO ONE ever announces them.  I don't have internet access at home, on my phone, or at work so checking my  Moodle is a once a day thing when I get to ISU for a brief period of time.  And of course they are not listed on the syllabus. I know it is my own fault for missing the assignments. I guess I should just be thankful that my professor wants to help me out and see what I can do to get  my grade up in...

I am so stoked for this Halloween! Cannot wait to go to all the haunted attractions! Eeeeek, I just wanna get so scared that I pee!  And this means I gotta have a Rocky Horror party soon :) I love my legs, shoot dang.  I must say I think they are one of the most  attractive parts of my body.  Not to mention I am so happy I have ankles. This week was the Work Week From Hell, and that is putting it lightly. I am so glad that I didn't have to work today. Within the last week I have worked 58 hour along  with going to all my classes. Accomplished, much? I am beginning to see my past come back to me.  In some ways I am scared, but in many ways I am excited. I am also beginning to realize how different my attitude and thought process is from my peers. My decision making apparently isn't as normal as I thought it was. I thought that doing what makes me happy was a good approach to life, but as of late I am one of ...