The story behind the name:

One evening, at the Old Broadway Grill in Fargo, North Dakota, my brother caught the end of a Mountain Dew commercial. In the commercial, a Mountain Dew drinker was riding a shark in the ocean. My brother exclaimed in surprise, not realizing that it was a commercial. When I told him he declared "All I saw was a guy coming out of the shower with a shark." Of course, he meant water, but the idea of showering with sharks has been with me ever since.

Friday, April 4, 2008

Waking Up

Five days ago I came to school ready to begin these last four weeks of class as if I were beginning anew. I was re-motivated, re-energized, ready to work hard, catch up, get ahead. Then, Monday afternoon I donated blood and the entire week changed for me.

First, I should note that I have never donated blood before. I used to have a severe needle fear. In fact, I couldn't even look at the inside of my elbow where the needle was supposed to go without getting queasy. Happily, I feel like I have largely conquered this fear. In the past, I have watched blood drives pass me by, knowing that I did not have the courage or fortitude to volunteer my own blood. However, last Friday, one week ago today, when one of my students stopped me and asked if I'd donate I said yes and made an appointment.

After it was too late, my family would tell me that they knew I shouldn't have done it. Well, that's all well and good... but, as Adam Sandler says in "The Wedding Singer" it was information I could have used yesterday.

Yes. I got sick. Really sick and nauseous. I had to be inverted - basically they take the lawn chair you are sitting on and tip your upper body back so that your head is below your heart. Then they put a really cold compress under you neck and bring a wet cloth from the freezer to put on your forehead. The freezer cloth was so cold that it burned. Anyway, while they were doing this, I heard my phlebotomist (spelling - ha ha, when I tried to spell check that word lobotomies came up) say "Oh no" which I never take as a good sign during anything even remotely medical. Apparently, when they inverted me they broke a or some blood vessels which resulted in a hematoma, which resulted in the repetitive prodding of my arm with whatever blood drainage device they had implanted in my arm (I didn't actually look at it once). Happily, it was soon over and the inversion and burningly cold cloth actually did the job in getting rid of my queasiness. So, I sat in the lawn chair, ate some pretzels and drank some cran-apple juice before going back to my office.

On my way back to my office I started feeling not-so-awesome so I elected to go home. Mark was home sick already with and upset stomach. At first, I thought my yucky feeling had to do with the blood draw... But a few hours later it became very apparent that I had what Mark had as my illness and symptoms progressed in exactly the same way as his had not 24 hours before.

So, I spent the next day in bed. I had to miss the first faculty meeting for the new environmental studies major, and that really bummed me out. Unlike David, who passionately hates meetings (at least, that is how I interpret his frequent rantings), I sort of like them. Nerdy, I know. So much for my new leaf on work.

Wednesday I made it in for the morning... just enough to teach class and then head home.

Thursday I felt quite a bit better and managed to make it to my new faculty seminar at 5 p.m. which was, as it had been in the past, quite fun and intellectually stimulating. These are things that I miss about being a student... sitting around in a group of peers and talking about things that are interesting and stimulating. I need to figure out a way to keep doing that next year when I won't have handily-scheduled, once-a-month, meetings.

Anyway, now it's Friday and I finally feel like I'm waking up after a week of weird off-ness (yes, I like to make up words). So, HURRAY! I'm all better just in time for the weekend.

Well, I suppose I should go. I have to make a few photocopies before my next class. But before I do that, I would like to ask one thing. Lately, I've been wanted to read more non-fiction. So, I soliciting suggestions for interesting and well-written non-fiction books. I'm not terribly picky on the topic... Anything you've read recently (or have heard good things about) and feel like passing on... Thanks!

1 comment:

  1. For those of us with an "intercultural" bent (and if you've ever had a bent intercultural, you know how painful it can be), it's hard to beat either The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down or Three Cups of Tea.

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