Abrams Falls trip 8-7-07

Well on Tuesday I had planned on going to Abrams Falls and hiking up the trail and back. I had to go to class for a few minutes while people were giving their presentations. I then went to my mom's house to get her camera because I wanted to take pictures of my venture.
For those that don't know, Abrams Falls Trail is 2.5 miles that runs along Abrams Creek in the smokey mountains. The end of the trail is a few hundred feet lower (elevation-wise) than the beginning. I hiked this trail last when I was 9-10 years old and it was so easy that I thought I would hike it fairly easy and get home fairly quickly.
Here are some pics of my hike. (I was doing this trail because I'm out of shape and figured that I'd start on an "easy" hike)
First I had to drive to cades cove and get on the 11 mile loop. Apparently the trail is on about mile 9 of that trail.

I thought this would be fairly quick because after all it was a tuesday afternoon.



My first warning:








There are four bridges like this on the trail. It's a good way to figure out how close you are to the end.


This was what the majority of the trail was like. (maybe a little worse)


I thought this was an old beehive or something. there were a lot of bees flying around and I forgot to bring my Epi-pen.




had to snap a quick shot of myself to show you how tired I was already. I wasn't even to the falls yet.

does it ever end?

FINALLY!!!!

I stopped taking pictures after I got to the falls so I waited until I got back to the beginning of the trail. I could've passed out. Thank God I had 4 bottles of water. I really need to get into shape.

The three U's

well if you're not in the mood to read about someone complain, you're wasting your time. This blog will list why the three U's in the subject describe me.



Underachiever:



As some of you know, I have been taking intermediate spanish I & II this summer. I got a B+ in the first one. The second one is going to be close to a C. You see, for some unknown reason, at Pellessippi State, they take attendance daily. If you miss so many classes, you are penalized for it gradewise. I believe this is dumb because since we're paying for it we should be able to go whenever we want. the University of Tennessee does not have that policy. I had a class last semester where I only showed up to 5 classes and I still passed.



Well, in the second spanish class I'm taking, I can only miss 3 days and it is a letter grade off for any extra days missed. There are 3 tests involving about a week of material for each. The first test, I showed up every day and made an 84. The second test, I missed one day and made a 91. The third and final test I missed two days and made a 94. Somehow she is telling me that I've missed 4 days. I learned a long time ago that the professor is always right no matter how much proof there is in your favor so there is no sense arguing about it. The highest I can make is a B and I'm pretty sure that I have a high B right now. but that will soon be reduced to a C due to my neglect of showing up to this class. I am apparently an underachiever.



Underpaid:



I have been working my current job for approximately 1.5 years. It is one of those jobs where you can run your butt off one night, and not have anything to do the next. It can be extremely stressful and physically draining. I didn't get hired making a lot of money, but it was more than Taco Bell could pay me. I have had reviews and at every one of them I have been told that I'm the "best transporter we've had in at least ten years." If that is so, why am I still working for the same amount I did when I started?



Everyone got a "cost of living" 3% raise last year but I did not. I'm actually thinking about telling them I have another job offer and need to get a good raise or I'm gone. I will be going up to HR this week to find out about it. I'm almost certain I'll get the run-around there. That is my story about being underpaid.



Underappreciated:



Tonight when I came in, I was told that the women's pavillion (WP) would probably call me for a CT scan on a patient. I got a page from them at 11:30 pm and went to call them. Here is a reenactment of the conversation.



Nurse: second floor.

me: Hi, did someone page the transporter?

Nurse: yeah are one of y'all coming down to take this patient to surgery?

me: I didn't know you had a patient to go to surgery, but I'll come and pick her up.

Nurse: Well I don't care WHO comes to pick her up as long as they do it right now.

me: ok well I'M on my way.



Perhaps she didn't know that there is only one transporter for the whole hospital after 11:00 pm. So I decided to give her the benefit of the doubt. I went to ER to grab a stretcher and the only one they had open was dirty so I had to clean it really quick and head down to WP. Once I got there I heard the same voice from the phone say "he's here." and then under her breath she said "doesn't seem to be in a hurry either." Had it not been for the poor woman in pain that needed to go to surgery, I would've pulled her to the side and told her that she needed to get her attitude in check and that she had only paged the transporter once so she needs not cop and attitude with me because I responded to her page as soon as I got it. So I bit my tounge and got the lady to surgery. I'm hoping I get to take her back to her room and that lady says something snide to me. Many relatives of mine are nurses and many friends of mine are nurses and I have nothing but respect for the profession. But when anyone gets lippy like she did, they deserve to be told what's what. Very unproffesional.

Day 8 of 8...finished.

Well it's been a long week and from what I've heard, it has potential to be longer. (they don't have a transporter scheduled at the hospital tonight so they'll probably try to call me in.)

I have posted a video on the website "break.com" and I would like to get some help with it.

I'm trying to get the video posted on the front page of the website and I need as many people as possible to 1. watch the video, 2. under the video there is a link with a green arrow that says "vote to homepage" click that link, 3. leave a comment if you would like to.

Supposedly if your video makes it to the homepage, you win money. I don't know if this is true or not.

Please help me out on this. Post the link to your own blog and spread the word.

http://view.break.com/324102
you may have to copy and paste the link.

day 1 of 8

Well I'm on an 8 day stretch at work. The night has gone by fairly smooth. A friend of mine always comes by and gets me to go to the cafeteria with him at 6 every morning. (neither of us has anything to do around that time.)

This morning we went to my "office" for me to get my money. When we walked out, two of our supervisors were standing outside the door. Neither of them have a problem with me at all, but one of them has a major problem with my buddy. She pretty much told him that he needs to go back to where he works and do busy work until 7am. Meanwhile, I just walked to the cafeteria and nodded at them both.

I just feel like he shouldn't have been griped at like that. The lady that got onto him has been trying to run him off for a couple of weeks now, and he actually does his job well.

Enough of that. I don't think I posted anything about when I took my son, billy, to the WWE show. I got a call the day before from a friend of mine who "may or may not" work at a radio station and he "may or may not have given me two free front row tickets and put us on the list for a "meet & greet"

We went backstage and there was billy's favorite tag team, Matt and Jeff Hardy. (billy cries if they lose) The women's champ, Melina, was there as well.

Billy with his favorite tag team. (and the beautiful women's champ)

I took this one during a match. (notice billy's attention is elsewhere)

This is the view of where we were sitting.

We got in before everyone else and billy wanted a pic of himself with the ring.

Well that's it. I'll blog again eventually.

blah

so it's been a little while since I wrote anything on here. I'll start off by posting a picture of what you see at the end of the appalachian trail.

I got a big tent from rose for father's day. I am thinking about trying it out this week in the back yard.

I'm doing okay in my spanish class. I made all 100s on my quizzes and made a 101 on the first exam. I had my second exam yesterday and didn't do terrific on it. but I figure I can afford it.

if anyone drinks coke products, please keep the cap and give it to me. I'm trying to save up some coke rewards points.

Well I have to get going now. thanks for reading.

a personal goal of mine

I've always wanted to do something in my life that would make people say "I could have never done that!" Of course in some cases people would say having 3 kids and going to school would qualify.

I've decided that I want to hike the appalachian trail from Georgia to Maine. I will have to do it in sections of course. I guess I'll start in Georgia and hike to virginia. then I'll pick up in virginia sometime later and just take it a little at a time.

I start school again tomorrow. Intermediate spanish 1 and 2. I'm not too excited because I have to work tonight so I'll be speeking sleepy spanish. (tomorrow I'll be saying "Necescito una siesta"

Adios for now.

Shelly's li'l video

You have to look hard because the video is kind of dark.