Ike Videos

I'm glad to see that Ike had a sense of humor!

This is what it looked like looking out of my window during the hurricane (except for the surge).

I Survived Ike

These past few days have really brought a new meaning to "Surviving Houston & Dental School." Hurricane Ike made landfall at Galveston on September 13 at 2:10am as a Category 2 hurricane with winds of 110 mph (a high-end Category 2). I live in central Houston a little west of downtown. We lost power at about 1:00am and we lost water a little bit after that. The storm was in full-force here about 3:00ish. I peeked out of my window a few times just to look and it was like nothing I have ever seen. The best I can describe, it was like in the movies where a ship is on the ocean and the rain is blowing every way and there is absolutely no visibility. The trees that I could see were completely blowing sideways and the wind didn't let up for a second. I kept hearing sounds of things falling over and being blown around. Everyone has been asking me if I was scared and, honestly, I wasn't. I love storms and this one was just too cool. I know that it was dangerous, but I still thought it was one of the best storms I have ever seen. The aftermath was not so cool though.

The next day after the hurricane, people were already walking around looking at the damage. The pictures I took were directly after the storm. I was without power until about 3:45pm today (I got water back Saturday) so I haven't been able to look at all of the pictures from everywhere else around Houston. From what my mom has been telling me, some of the tall buildings downtown are in pretty bad shape. I drove around a little bit today to go find a restaurant with hot food and cold drinks and the biggest thing I saw was a lot of trees and debris on the ground. Of course there were a lot of buildings with wind damage and signs and traffic lights were torn up, but I think Houston will be able to recover.

The hardest thing about living in Houston with no power was, of course, the humidity. I took a shower Friday night before the storm, but by mid-day Saturday, I was already so sticky and so uncomfortable. I will never take electricity for granted again. I had to throw away everything in my refrigerator and I had to sit in my car for about an hour just to charge my cell phone and cool off. I've been living off of tuna, chips, crackers, and granola bars for 3 days, but I was able to treat myself to a steak at Saltgrass today. I felt like I deserved it! :) It will still be "Pringles and Milky Ways" for a few days until I can go get some groceries, but the worst is over. At least I can heat up a can of soup now.

I want to thank all of you who called or messaged to check on me. It made me feel better to know that I was in your prayers. It really means a lot to me to know that you care! :) Maybe when the next hurricane comes around, I'll be an evacuee. Until then, I'll be enjoying the luxuries of electricity and water!

I wish I were an....

I'm sure you're wondering why there is a picture of the Oscar Mayer Wienermobile on my blog. Well, I was lucky enough to spot it tonight while I was leaving SuperTarget at the intersection of Kirby and Main. It was about 8:15ish and it was dark. I saw a funny looking vehicle coming towards me and, as it passed, I saw the unmistakable square Oscar Mayer logo on the side. I was like "NO WAY!" I just saw the Wienermobile! I don't actually have a picture to prove it so you'll just have to take my word for it. But just think, this is way to random for me to just make up. I learned that there are only 6 or 7 (conflicting information) Wienermobiles in existence and they are driven by 2 "Hotdoggers." A person can only be a Hotdogger for 1 year and only seniors in college who are about to graduate are eligible to apply for the position. How cool would that be to graduate from college and drive around in the Wienermobile for a whole year? I wish I would have known this 3 years ago! Check out the Kraft Foods website for a virtual tour of the inside and the article from Wikipedia.

Other than the sighting, my week has been pretty fun. Analisa came to visit me from Lubbock this past weekend and we had so much fun! On Saturday we went to the Galleria and ate at the Cheescake Factory. It was amazing! I highly recommend the tiramisu cheesecake - my 2 favorite desserts in one! Analisa's uncle and aunt live here in Houston and her mom and dad came down from Austin to visit. We all hung out Saturday night and her uncle showed me around the city. I got to see all the cool places to hang out and shop and he took us to some really good restaurants. On Sunday morning, we went to Lakewood Church (Joel Osteen's church). It was AMAZING! The church is actually the building that the Houston Rockets used to play in. It is a massive arena made in to a church. The atmosphere is so wonderful, positive, and inviting. It is a non-denominational church and people from every nationality come to the service. The music rocks and Joel and his wife are the best! They are both very well spoken and just make you feel positive and full of life. I'm not a big singer during church usually, but I just couldn't help but get involved in the atmosphere of the place. It just sucks you in, but in a good way. I will definitely go back!

I have also survived my first set of tests in dental school. I had quizzes in histology and biochemistry (which sucked!) and an quiz/exam in dental anatomy (which I kicked butt on by the way!). Today I had my first REAL exam and it was in immunology. It was not fun, but I think I did okay. I have a physiology exam on Friday and then a tooth identification exam on Monday. I think from this point on, I will have at least 2 tests a week for the rest of the semester. It's craziness, but it makes school go by faster. I'm just living life test to test.

Hopefully Houston will survive the upcoming Hurricane Ike. The last time I checked it was heading straight for us. It is currently a category 2, but they say it will gain strength over the warm gulf waters and may get up to a category 4 before it hits us. A category 4 hurricane can have winds up to 155 mph! I went to Target tonight to get some more water and stuff and it was crazy there! People all over Houston are getting ready. I was worried about Gustav at first, but it never even hit us. I don't think Ike will do the same. I expect to see a lot of rain and a lot of wind. Hopefully my apartment will stand up to it. We'll see what happens. I may have to evacuate, but hopefully not. Everybody just hope for the best.

Article

Can you find me in the picture? (2nd row, 2nd seat)

This is just an article posted by my school about our ceremony. Just thought you might like to read it! http://www.db.uth.tmc.edu/UTDB_eflash/email/WhiteCoats2008.htm

2 Weeks Gone

I have so much to catch up on, I don't know where to start! I guess I need to go back to the second day of school. The rest of the first week wasn't all that eventful. We got out of a lot of our classes early so that was good, but we were kind of spoiled to that which made the second week harder. Tuesdays are our longest days. We go from 8am to 5pm. I know that doesn't seem long to people with full-time jobs, but it seems really long to us considering we get out at 11am on Wednesdays and usually before 3:00 every other day. I guess I'll have to get used to it before I become a dentist.

I'm really torn about how much information I should or should not post on my blog. I would like to tell you specifics on my professors like who is boring, monotone, psychotic, nice, etc., but I don't want this to fall upon the wrong eyes. My grade may depend on it! :) Since I won't go in to more detail about my profs and I'm sure you don't care about what we're learning in immunology, I'll skip to Friday of week 1. After school, me, Sunny, & Kasey were so happy to have survived that we decided to go find a "Happy Hour!" There is this place close to the dental school called the McGovern Commons and on the top floor (I think it is the 6th floor) is a restaurant called Trevisio. We knew that they had drinks and it was close so we went and celebrated the end of our first week (and by celebrated I mean we had 1 drink each, honestly).

The weekend was pretty boring and uneventful. I laid around the house and caught up on some rest. Of course I found time for a little Guitar Hero! :) I worked around my apartment a little too. It's still not "home," but it's getting closer. I got my new bedspread and sheets which make my room so much cozier! My bedspread is big zebra stripes and my sheets are RED! I love it! I got some black and silver pillowcases for my extra pillows and my bed looks gorgeous! I'll have to post a picture when I get my room all done. I still don't have anything hung on the walls or any decorations out. I'm still trying to decide how I want my furniture placed. I'll get to it eventually.

Well week 2 was nothing new. (haha...that rhymes!) Classes were generally boring and getting up early still sucked. On Wednesday, I hung out with my friend Valerie after school because we were going to the Astros game together. We had planned to study and then maybe work out, but we decided that going to the Galleria would be much more exciting. We did stay after school a little bit and worked on our waxing. While we were waxing, the president of the entire Health Science Center in Houston was touring the dental school and he came through our waxing lab. The dean of the dental school stopped by me and Valerie and was telling him about what we were doing and what we will be doing in the future. I said, "Don't scare us yet. We're only in our second week!" She laughed and said to me, "Well your posture is perfect!" That's not a huge compliment but it made me feel pretty good coming from the dean of the school. To add to that, one of the dentists that was touring with them pointed at my hand and said, "You would be surprised just how long it takes to perfect this pinky rest, but this girl has it down." Yay! I'm doing things right! A pinky rest is when you put your pinky on the edge of the tooth or whatever you're working on to stabilize your hand while you're holding the instrument with the other fingers. It appears as if I'm on my way to being a great dentist and, the president of the whole HSC knows! It's not a big deal, like I said, but any boost of confidence right now is great! So anyway, after we were done waxing, me and Valerie went to the Galleria where I got to shop at Sephora, the Apple Store, Coach, and all kinds of other places. I love going there! I just wish I had tons and tons of money to spend! We left the Galleria, went home to change, and then headed to the Astros game. One of the fraternities here (Psi Omega) bought tickets for everyone that wanted to go because it was their rush week. The game was so cool! The stadium or whatever it is called was huge and really neat! We stayed until the end of the 7th inning, but I'm pretty sure the Astros won. We were ahead 3-1 when we left. I bought a t-shirt to remember the occasion and then I went home.

Now for my long weekend, Labor Day Weekend 2008. I did absolutely nothing! Not working and being able to relax is awesome! It leaves so much time for studying and catching up! So, most of the weekend I spent worrying about Hurricane Gustav which never hit us! I was supposed to stock up on water, batteries, and food, but it is Tuesday and I have yet to see a drop of rain from it. I was kind of nervous, but kind of excited at the same time. It would have been cool to experience hurricane weather (since I love storms and rain) but the consequences might not have been so cool. I also got my cable and internet hooked up this weekend which was a big mess. The cable is great, but the internet, well, it's not so great. The speed is fine and everything, but I can only use it on 1 computer. I hooked it up to my router so I could get internet for my TiVo, my Wii, and my laptop like I always have, but that didn't work. I even went and bought another router thinking that mine was busted. The problem is, I didn't PAY for a networking service frrom Comcast. I would have to pay them $150 for someone to come out and flip a switch or whatever allowing me to use my router. So instead of doing that, I switched my Comcast internet to Comcast telephone and got internet through someone else. It was a huge fiasco! I never heard of not being able to use your router with an internet connection. That's ridiculous! So, I do have internet for now, but when I get my phone activated on Saturday, my internet will be canceled until the other people get there to install it again. Hopefully, everything will work eventually!

So now it is Tuesday and the first day of the week that I have my first tests. I have a histology quiz and a biochemistry quiz both on Thursday and then I have a dental anatomy quiz/test on Friday. I have a lot of studying to do this week! Well my dental informatics class is about to start so I better get going. Have a great week!