I suppose its no big deal to get your pictures on Google Earth, but I was pretty happy that most of mine have been chosen. See http://www.panoramio.com/user/1262312

But I admit my photography is pretty lame when compared with Matt Beatty. See http://mooncowboy.blogspot.com and more particularly http://www.flickr.com/photos/10215684@N00

THE STORY OF MY FREE SONY ERICSSON LAPTOP

So I got a MRSA infection in my elbow. My elbow was killing me one evening, so I went and got it checked. They took an X-ray, and then concluded that my Bursa was inflamed because of a really cool bone spur I have... Seriously, it looks like I'm evolving into a Pterodactyl or something. I also had a little bit of cracked skin on my elbow, from being in UT the last weekend, so they gave me some worthless antibiotic (actually its Keflex, so its not exactly worthless, but it does nothing for what I got)...

Anyhow, the next day my elbow was super red and very sore, and that night I had a fever. John Watson was dropping off a book or something and made a funny comment about me wearing a sweatshirt in this ridiculously warm Florida weather. The next day the red/purpleness had spread in a uniform circle away from my cracked elbow, and it was as swollen as all get up. SO I called Nathan Kelsey. Que trumpets.

He asked me if it 'crackled' to the touch, and for a second I thought it did. Luckily I was wrong because I probably would have had to amputate my arm had I been correct. Nate was effective at convincing me to go to the doctor, so I did that night. They took about a gallon of blood for cultures, and said that I had "Methicillin-Resistant Staphylococcus Aureus." This article about one particular MRSA was my first result, and it is not cool. MOM, DO NOT READ THAT ARTICLE, I DIDN'T CATCH STRAIN USA600. After they told me "MRSA is all over down here," I got an IV of Vancomycin, and a subscription for Sulfamethoxazole (SP?)... Little did the docs know that I'd had all this stuff before with Dr. Ey...

So I went home with instuctions to come back in 24 hours. I did so, and was there until 5 AM getting another, bigger dose of Vancomycin, and a big dose of Levafloxcin (?...that might be totally wrong). I was sent home with another perscription for Doxycilin (?)...

As a side note, while I was there for that really long night, I had a 'roomate' who died. I never got to see her face so I can't tell how old she was, but she had breast cancer which had metastacized. She had been sitting up and talking to the EMTs on the way to the hospital, complaining of difficulty in breathing. But she passed out before she got to the hospital, and then went into cardiac arrest right when she got to the room. They tried soooo hard not to let her die, with epinephrine, and something else that starts with an 'A', and with the defribrillator, and then just CPR for like half an hour. They had pulled a curtain between us, but literally I was about 4 feet away while all of this was going on.

After she died, one of the nurses asked if I wanted to go sit in the hall on a different bed, and I said sure, because in my head I thought it would be wierd to have said "No, I want to hang out with the dead body while the coroner comes to clean up..." But it was nice to get away from the noise of hospital procedure, and contemplate the momentous event that had just happened to someone of close proximity. Its been a long time since I've been forced to think about death. I am really grateful for the times in my life that I have had to think about it. It changed who I am, I think in a really good way. It makes me sad to think how those memories have faded, and how I have progressed back to being my dumb, selfish, short-sighted self over the last 5 or so years.

Anyhow, the part of that lady's death that affected me the most was the moment her husband showed up. He was an elderly man, skinny with very dark eyes, and probably a foot shorter than me. He walked in about five minutes after they had stopped CPR. He had gotten dressed and had a plastic grocery bag with a change of clothes for his wife, along with her medicine (a couple of prescriptions). He was so quiet, and when they told him that he had passed away he nodded with a frown, and then nodded to a few more of their statements. I was about 15 feet away, but I tried not to blatantly stare, and when he walked away, he didn't notice me. He talked with the doctors for like two minutes, and then he walked away for a while.

As he was walking past me, I saw his lip quivering, and then he turned down a hall out of the view of the doctors, but in my full view, and I watched from behind as he started wiping his eyes. Then he turned and I didn't see him for like half an hour. I wish I had shared this sooner, because I feel like I'm Frost, telling this with a sigh, somewhere ages and ages hence... But the next day, I was bawling all through sacrament meeting. And then John Watson came over to grab some books after church, and I tried to tell him about my night, and I almost started all over. The last time I cried that hard was when I tried to tell Sierra the things Ben had shared with me about his crash. I couldn't even get one sentence out without having to stop for like 30 seconds while I cried. This wasn't at all that bad, because Ben is one of my best friends and this elderly gentleman was just a stranger, but I felt so much sadness for him. And it probably also has to do with the fact that I was on like 3 hours of sleep, and was loaded up with crazy antibiotics that tax the soul.

Let me be clear, aside from all machismo, I don't fear my own death. I'm OK with it, because I've accepted the fact that our hearts, though stout and brave, still, like muffled drums, are beating funeral marches to the grave. I'm actually really excited for the experience, however weird that may sound. BUT, death is of necessity accompanied by separation. The separation of body and spirit is alright, but the separation of me from my loved ones, especially from Sierra, is an unbearable thought, and when I am forced to contemplate THAT, I get weepy.

Sorry for the cheese, but its the truth. Poor Josh Tillotson came up to me after sacrament meeting that day, I think because he wanted to comfort me. But the real comfort comes from the Restored Gospel. Families can be eternal, and this brings peace...

SO what about the laptop? Well, sometime during or immediately after this experience, I opened my email because I was afraid I was missing some meeting for one of the organizations in which I am a Vice President, and I saw a forwarded email for a free laptop. Just forward it on to your friends and include Anna@sonyericsson.com in CC. Its been "checked on snopes"... Yeah right. My brain said, "scam, scam, scam." But I said, to heck with it, its probably worth the 30 seconds, and my friends will forgive me. So I clicked the forward button, and sent that multiplied piece of cybertrash to a bunch of friends.

Needless to say, I didn't really get the laptop, but I did get into a great conversation with one of my professors about the iPhone. The end of my MRSA adventure was a check up with a Dr, who said everything looks fine. Michelle says that the adventure is never really ended, but I think I'm done. You, mr or ms reader, are amazing for having read all of this.

So I just registered my blog domain, but I was afraid I was going to delete the whole thing. Pretty stressful. I still don't have all the kinks worked out, but I'm happy with it.