Wednesday, March 12, 2008

It's time for a new scene

For those of you who are wondering, my thesis defense went really well... aside the part where I tripped over a power chord and unplugged the projector before starting my presentation. The committee asked me questions for an hour and a half before sending me out and deciding on my mark. As they deliberated, I stood in the hall with a dear friend who sat outside waiting for the full two hours. After about five minutes, they called me in and told me that I had passed. It feels great to be finished.

To celebrate, Kyle and I are heading out on a three-week trip. We're going to Chicago, New York, and then to Egypt. The past few days have been filled with preparations for our trip.

This week we were due to get our second Hepatitis vaccine, which will allow us to eat ice cubes and borrow other people's nail clippers while we're in Egypt. When I went to the university clinic to get my injection, I was told that I would have to wait at least 90 minutes to see a doctor. Not wanting to wait, I took my vaccine home with me. When I got home, Kyle and I made a list of people we knew who could administer the vaccine, which came conveniently packaged in a ready-to-use syringe.

As we made our way down our list of medical professionals who might inject us in exchange for a bottle of wine, we called a friend of Kyle's whose wife is a nurse. Kyle's friend told us that although his wife wouldn't be able to help us, he was going out for wings with a buddy who also happened to be a nurse. On their way to the pub, Kyle's friend and Nurse Buddy popped by to give us our needles. It was a bit awkward to invite a stranger into our home, shake his hand, and then roll up our sleeves for the injection. He did an awesome job and the injection was painless. He was so good I almost wanted to check the floor to make sure he hadn't missed my arm and spilled my $57 vaccine all over the floor.

Problem solved! We were injected and ready to take on the world. However, because Nurse Buddy didn't want to take our used needles with him to the pub, Kyle and I were left with two syringes to dispose of. Not wanting to throw them in the garbage, we wondered how we could get rid of them. In a stroke of genius, we decided to drive downtown and dispose of the needles in the safe boxes intended for drug users on the street. Under the cover or darkness we crossed town, walked through the seediest park we could find, and dropped our needles in the bright yellow safe box. I did feel a bit uncomfortable using services intended for addicts and homeless people. However, I figure that the government resources used to dispose of our Twinrix needles are much less than what would have been required for a more legitimate vaccination experience.

We'll be gone until early April. I'm not sure how often I'll be accessing the internet but I hope to post a few times while we're away.

7 comments:

Karen said...

Hey Jamie, I hope you guys have a great trip!
Make sure Kyle has all 26 pairs of underwear packed!
Hopefully the 3 of us will see you when you get back.

Robin M said...

congrats & have a fantastic trip! i'm jealous :)

DaveJenn said...

Congrats!!!! Have a great and relaxing vacation. Take lots of pictures and when you come back we will have you over for a slide show!

Jenn

Unknown said...

Congrats Jamie! It must feel great to be finished. Have a great trip. It'll give Siri and I some fun places to look up on the map.

DaveJenn said...

So if your roomies invite us over for a kegger should we drop you an email??

Avey said...

The weird situations you get yourself into always amazes me. It would have never crossesd my mind to take my vaccine home and find someone else who would do it. Every starbucks has a yellow needle box in the back room. You could have skipped walking through the dodgy part of town and gone right into a trendy starbucks, and asked one of the girls to deposit your needle. Hahahaha. That likely would have been an equally funny story.
Have a great trip.

arbyn said...

What a great story.

Have a wonderful trip! Good thing you passed or you wouldn't be going to Egypt.

 
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