Life and times

2010-04-25T04:51:00.000-04:00

Location Location

So it seems I will be moving to Lakenheath, UK. That's England for those not in the know. Not a typo for Arkansas or Alaska. So now I just have to have some major yardsale/Goodwill action and purge some (a lot) of my stuff. haha. I know...I just have way too much stuff.

2010-02-27T12:38:00.005-05:00

Location, Location, Location...
So the list is out. Now I have to rank my top three...

To my friends and family. What sounds good? What sounds bad? What have you heard?? If you want to see where exactly they are look here.

Altus (Oklahoma)

Aviano (Italy)

Beale (California)

Cannon (New Mexico)

Chroughton (England)

Davis-Monthan (Arizona)

Dover (Delaware)

Dyess (Texas)

Edwards (California)

Eielson (Alaska)

Ellsworth (South Dakota)

Fairchild (Washington)

Goodfellow (Texas)

Hanscom (Boston, Massachusetts)

Hill (Utah)

Holloman (New Mexico)

Kadena (Japan)

Lakenheath (England)

Little Rock (Arkansas)

Maxwell (Alabama)

McConnell (Kansas)

Mcguire (New Jersey)

Minot (North Dakota)

Moody (Georgia)

Mount Home (Idaho)

Patrick (Florida)

Pentagon AF DC (duh)

Robins (Georgia)

Spang-Bitburg (Germany)

Tyndall (Florida)

Whiteman (Missouri)

Yokota (Japan - near Tokyo)

2010-02-27T12:37:00.000-05:00

It's official. I'm the worst blogger ever.

2008-10-20T17:25:00.002-04:00

So for those that don't know... my dad was diagnosed with lung cancer just a couple of weeks ago. It is scary and stressful and well, I'm sure you can come up with plenty of other descriptive words......
He had his IV port put in on Friday, and he starts chemo this Wednesday. And instead of getting to be near him and help my sister with all of this, I am trying to study for my national board exam which is coming up in November. Guess how well that's going...

Anyway...

back to trying to study.......

2008-05-01T21:43:00.002-04:00

On the same thought-wave as Beth. A shout out to both my dad and Jerris/Andy, the ever building men I have known.

http://xkcd.com/319/

2008-05-01T21:21:00.002-04:00

Well, one more day of tests and then Vacation! I do believe that this is the first one that I've had in well, years, that I don't have plans for. Any ideas??

I'm thinking about playing tourist. You know.... buy a guidebook and do all of those things people do in Charleston that I've not gotten around to in the last three years. Which is just about everything.

So cast your vote. What should I do next week? Beach? Spring cleaning? Carriage ride? Random hitchiking trip to Tallahassee?

2008-04-13T20:04:00.003-04:00

All I have to say is... "that was unexpected."

Not unfortunate or unpleasant or unlikely (I suppose), but unexpected none-the-less. Or so I like to tell myself.

This being mostly for my own benefit, I won't go into further details. But I will say yeah, that is exactly what every girl wants to hear as she walks out of a door. However, think about the last unexpected thing to happen to you that wasn't also either unfortunate or unpleasant. I hope you could come up with more events than I could.

2008-04-06T13:06:00.002-04:00

Well, I am the worst blogger ever.

I am just about to finish up my 3rd yr here at MUSC...I can't believe that I will be a senior in a little over a month. It seems that I should know what I'm doing now...enough to teach the 'tricks' to the rising Juniors. Some days I feel ready, but mostly I still feel like I want someone over my shoulder saying "yes, you really are doing this right". Soon I have to start studying again for the National Boards, application for residency...and a new life in the Air Force. All a bit daunting.

Happy note... I have already blocked out days to go to Emmy and Jerris's wedding. YEAH!!! I miss people so much... while school is good and people are nice... most everyone is married (and never do anything) or not cool enough to like "Spaced", "Naruto" and other awsome things that the gang got me hooked on.

:(

But life is good. My nieces are healthy and growing, and the wisteria vines and azaleas are blooming to beat the band. Guess I can't complain too much that I miss my Landis/FSU friends. It is good to know that everyone is doing well.

Now to clean the house before going to see Run Fat Boy Run. Simon Pegg is just awsome.

2007-07-07T01:27:00.000-04:00

Well, though I seemed to have fallen off the planet, I was actually fighting for my sanity as I was responsible for 26 credit hours this Spring, as well as preparing for my Part I of the National Board Exam.

I passed!! So I am deemed competant in the Basic Sciences and can now try my hand at real patients. I currently have 4 denture patients (immediates - which means I have to prepare the denture BEFORE they have their teeth pulled. Believe me hard work!!) as well as various other patients with issues best discussed later.

After my exam I spent the week at my sister's house in Colorado. I was able to hold the very cuddly Millie (Amelia Young Linder - 8 wks old now and oh so adorable) as well as play with Maggie (my 3 year old niece). Lots of fun, but my sister is going through Chemo again, and that is very tough on her family. Keep us in your prayers. Well, her mostly :) I can handle myself. -- Kung fu and all that jazz.

I earned my green belt in the spring. I then proceeded to get very rusty - and have to relearn a ton. Of course that is the way of the world.

My sorority sisters Carla and Francis are in town for the week, and I have been trying to entertain them by having them run free during the day, and taking them out at night. Tonight we went Salsa dancing. LOTS of FUN. I will have to go dancing more often. I was pitiful like all first time dancers, but several guys danced with me more than once, so I guess I didn't kill too many toes. One guy in particular kept trying to monopolize my time -- annoying -- but he knows about all of the dancing events in town, so I let him hang around. Not a bad guy I guess, but when you are out with your friends, you don't want anyone to monopolize your time but the people you brought with you :) I was able to wear a fun blue dress that I made this past year....one of the hardest things I have ever made - and probably a one-of-a-kind forever due to the difficulty of the pattern. I only wore it for an hour or so before slipping out of my dancing shoes and dress (in the restroom--dirty minds) into a tank top and skirt that were a little cooler and with less risk of "falling out" as the saying goes. :) I will have to find a great swingy skirt and high necked tank top to wear if I continue with such outings. It makes dancing much more fun if you aren't worried about how much cleavage you are showing (avoiding a "wardrobe malfunction" is the key here).

On sad news my favorite breakfast place has closed. They say it will become a Noodle and Sake bar, but it still hasn't morphed... Ah well what can you do. I suppose I will have to cook my own eggs and bacon from now on. I will certainly miss the beniets though.

Well there is the update...a new and thought provoking quote to come (from "THUD" by Terry Pratchett)...stay posted.

2007-02-17T19:20:00.000-05:00

And another month passes. I did manage to live through another "singles awareness day" as a good friend of mine so aptly puts it. School is not so much fun. Nothing bad...just...bleh. Though I did a little dance when I made a 95 on a difficult class III prep. (that's a cutting out a simulated cavity between two front teeth---from the back side).

I went to an 80s prom last night put on by Delta Sigma dental fraternity. I put video up on my myspace page, and pictures on facebook if you can find me. That was more fun that I've had in a while. I actually watched Romy & Michelle's High School Reunion to get inspiration.

The only other major fun recently was seeing Enter the Haggis (www.enterthehaggis.org) on Sullivan's Island last month. The band was great, but the turnout, unfortunately, was not. I think there were 12 people in the entire bar. It was cold...but really for an awsome band that is NO EXCUSE. Though I did get free beer from the bartender. Go WindJammer! Despite my general aversion to beer I do really like Blue Moon. It is kind of like heppavise (sorry I can't spell german beer---it's the one you get with an orange stuck in it).

I suppose I can no longer put off studying for my Pharmacology test even though it seems hopeless. It took 5 hrs of studying to pass a single quiz. I'm sunk...all those durned names...most of which I can't pronounce, making it hard to keep them all straight.

Oh, I have found the best place for breakfast/brunch in Charleston. Marie Laveau's... yummy, and just a short walk from my house. Making it the most convienient thing in Charleston, short of my church which is also only a 5 minute walk from my front door.

2007-01-19T21:10:00.000-05:00

And my second week of classes is now over. Bleh. I should be more excited. Last weekend I found a senior who likes Buffy as much as I do....of course after I suggested that we watch again this weekend I got an email saying, "That was fun, we should do it again...and I just want to be friends." It actually took me a few minutes to realize why my feelings had been hurt :) Isn't that supposed to be my line? Anyway, I have been spending way too many hours in front of the tv, watching nothing good, and am getting sick of myself. So this weekend I plan to get off my tucus (ie. butt) and do some studying and something fun. Something that doesn't involve shopping, since I bought 4 pairs of shoes the other day. They were on sale, I promise. Not that that makes it much better.

Any ideas?

2007-01-08T10:08:00.000-05:00

Ah, so another new year has arrived. The fun of the holidays is over, and school begins again. Tomorrow. So much for sleeping late. I am not even going to try to pull a JackBoot and fill you in on New Year's/the end of last year. Too much to even begin...Suffice to say at Christmas there was snow. Lots of snow. So much snow I could not even go skiing. "You jest" you say. "No" says I. "I jest not".

2006-12-26T14:37:00.000-05:00

Just a little snow, right?

2006-12-11T23:33:00.000-05:00

Can anyoe tell that I'm studying for Exams and really don't want to. I really just want to cry. Waaahhh!!!

2006-12-11T23:32:00.000-05:00

and it looks like my sad excuse of a program that I am finally figuring out is going the way of all such things...and I'll have to learn another new trick. I DONT WANNA.

2006-12-11T23:31:00.000-05:00

I so want to just run away..escape from the exams and quizzes and ..........GO OUT AND HAVE SOME FUN.

2006-12-11T23:30:00.000-05:00

I hate school it sucks...as in it sucks all the life out of you. or it does me anyway.

2006-08-23T08:45:00.000-04:00

At some point I am going to figure this out well enough to edit it back into something fun to read....Like with titles and stuff like andy... 'cause he is just so cool

2006-08-23T08:40:00.000-04:00

I am finally home. HOME. I flew back into town on Monday...started classes Tuesday...and am now sitting in a VERY boring Pathology class. It appears that my cats still remember me. Cinder hasn't been 5 feet from me since I got back...and if I am sitting/laying down I find him pressed against me in nothing flat. :) nice to know I'm still loved.

2006-07-10T18:52:00.000-04:00

Well I survived COT, and after a single day at home I was off to Tampa, FL. Three days there and then it was off for a whirlwind three days in Colorado, then back to Tampa. On Friday I am off to Ft. Myers Beach for a week. Yeah for family reunions. Then a swing through good ol' Tallahassee before heading home for a week then off to Colorado again for 3 weeks to round out my summer before school starts.

2006-07-05T21:13:00.000-04:00

I managed to live through COT in Alabama. I had planned to document the time...but they never left enough time in the day to do it!! I was up at 4 every morning and didn't get to sleep until 11 or 12 each night. Ah well. It involved running, marching, hot hot hot weather, and lots of reporting statements. Don't know what a reporting statement is?? Lucky you. :) Now I am continuing my summer travels (man do I miss my cats) in Florida. I am spending a few weeks with my best friend Anne, then off to Ft. Myers for my family reunion, home for a week or so, and then off to Colorado to complete my summer with my sister. Ah well I guess since it is my last summer off I should be making the most of it. But man do I miss my bed. And did I mention my cats?? Hehe...

2006-05-29T20:35:00.000-04:00

Off to sleep if the butterflies don't eat me from the inside I will be off the the airport at 5am. Oh the fun. Bleck.

2006-05-29T18:58:00.000-04:00

So ok. I am a little nervous. Shoot me. I take that back I am headed to a place where people have guns. Don't shoot me! :)

2006-05-29T09:07:00.000-04:00

Only one more day before I fly to Alabama. Now its down to the nitty gritty of packing my civilian clothes and finding my computer lock. Oh the fun of last minute packing.

2006-05-28T14:38:00.000-04:00

2nd Lt. Jennifer Creech (COT 06/05)
550 E. Maxwell Blvd. #9000
Maxwell AFB, AL 36112-5000

2006-05-28T14:37:00.000-04:00

So if anyone wants to be a dear my address at COT is as follows

2006-05-26T10:04:00.000-04:00

Well, on Tuesday I will be off to go learn to be an officer. For those of you that didn't know I am currently a 2nd Lt in the Air Force. I know...who would have thought it! Uncle Sam is kindly paying to send me to dental school, so now comes some of the payback. I will be at Maxwell AFB in Montgomery, AL. Check my Myspace message for my address. I would sure like a postcard or something while I am there.

2006-05-01T01:43:00.000-04:00

Today begins the next-to last day of exams for my entire first year of dental school!! Now only 3 more to go. (and 2 days...but who's counting..) In less than 12 hours I will be taking my Physiology final. Good old physiology. I was one of maybe 15 students who actually went to class. The agony!

2006-04-30T17:15:00.000-04:00

Only 2 more days and then SUMMER! Yeah!. Of course that just means I have to learn to run so that I don't die when I go off to the Air Force. Yes that is right I...Erin...am in the USAF. Who would have thought! They will be running my little butt into the ground all month (JUNE) long. In ALABAMA of all places. Talk about hot and humid (so I hear.)

2006-04-30T16:59:00.000-04:00

After a random comment on Paul's blog I realized that I have one of those cool little "on the fly" commenters too! Guess I better get back in the loop. Charleston sucks. Not really but I sure do miss all of my FSU peeps.

2006-02-14T01:49:00.000-05:00

Something to think about in these tumultuous times...

Mr. President: I rise to a question of personal privilege.

I have no intention of taking the time of the Senate with a review of the events which led to our entrance into the war except in so far as they bear upon the question of personal privilege to which I am addressing myself.

Six Members of the Senate and fifty Members of the House voted against the declaration of war. Immediately there was let loose upon those Senators and Representatives a flood of invective and abuse from newspapers and individuals who had been clamoring for war, unequalled, I believe, in the history of civilized society.

Prior to the declaration of war every man who had venture to oppose our entrance into it had been condemned as a coward or worse, and even the President had by no means been immune from these attacks.

Since the declaration of war, the triumphant war press has pursued those Senators and Representative who voted against war with malicious falsehood and recklessly libelous attacks, going to the extreme limit of charging them with treason against their country.

This campaign of libel and character assassination directed against the Members of Congress who opposed our entrance into the war has been continued down to the present hour, and I have upon my desk newspaper clippings, some of them libels upon me alone, some directed as well against other Senators who voted in opposition to the declaration of war. One of these newspaper reports most widely circulated represents a Federal judge in the State of Texas as saying, in a charge of a grand jury -- I read the article as it appeared in the newspaper and the headline with which it is introduced:

District Judge Would Like to Take Shot at Traditions in Congress

( By Associated Press lease wire)

Houston, Texas, October 1, 1917. Judge Waller T. Burns, of the United
States district court, in charging a Federal grand jury at the beginning of the
October term today, after calling by name Senators Stone of Missouri,
Hardwick of Georgia, Vardaman of Mississippi, Gronna of North Dakota,
Gore of Oklahoma, and LaFollette of Wisconsin, said:

“If I had a wish, I would wish that you men had jurisdiction to return bills of indictment against these men. They ought to be tried promptly and fairly, and I believe this court could administer the law fairly; but I have a conviction, as strong as life, that this country should stand them up against an adobe wall tomorrow and give them what they deserve. If any man deserves death, it is a traitor. I wish that I could pay for the ammunition. I would like to attend the execution, and if I were in the firing squad I would not want to be the marksman who had the blank shell.”...

If this newspaper clipping were a single or exceptional instance of lawless defamation, I should not trouble the Senate with a reference to it. But, Mr. President, it is not.

In this mass of newspaper clippings which I have here upon my desk, and which I shall not trouble the Senate to read unless it is desired, and which represent but a small part of the accumulation clipped from the daily press of the country in the last three months, I find other Senators, as well as myself, accused of the highest crimes of which any man can be guilty -- treason and disloyalty -- and, sir, accused not only with no evidence to support the accusation, but without the suggestion that such evidence anywhere exists. It is not claimed that Senators who opposed the declaration of war have since that time acted with any concerted purpose, either regarding war measures or any others. They have voted according to their individual opinions, have often been opposed to each other on bills which have come before the Senate since the declaration of war, and, according to my recollection, have never all voted together since that time upon any singe proposition upon which the Senate has been divided.

I am aware, Mr. President, that in pursuance of this campaign of vilification and attempted intimidation, requests from various individuals and certain organizations have been submitted to the Senate for my expulsion from this body, and that such requests have been referred to and considered by one of the committees of the Senate.

If I alone had been made the victim of these attacks, I should not take one moment of the Senate’s time for their consideration, and I believe that other Senators who have been unjustly and unfairly assailed, as I have been, hold the same attitude upon this that I do. Neither the clamor of the mob nor the voice of power will ever turn me by the breadth of a hair from the course I mark out for myself, guided by such knowledge as I can obtain and controlled and directed by a solemn conviction of right and duty.

But, sir, it is not alone Members of Congress that the war party in this country has sought to intimidate. The mandate seems to have gone forth to the sovereign people of this country that they must be silent while those things are being done by their Government which most vitally concern their well-being, their happiness, and their lives. Today, and for weeks past, honest and law-abiding citizens of this country are being terrorized and outraged in their rights by those sworn to uphold the laws and protect the rights of the people. I have in my possession numerous affidavits establishing the fact that people are being unlawfully arrested, thrown into jail, held incommunicado for days, only to be eventually discharged without ever having been taken into court, because they have committed no crime. Private residences are being invaded, loyal citizens of undoubted integrity and probity arrested, cross-examined, and the most sacred constitutional rights guaranteed to every American citizen are being violated.

It appears to be the purpose of those conducting this campaign to throw the country into a state of terror, to coerce public opinion, to stifle criticism, and suppress discussion of the great issues involved in this war.

I think all men recognize that in time of war the citizen must surrender some rights for the common good which he is entitled to enjoy in time of peace. But, sir, the right to control their own Government according to constitutional forms is not one of the rights that the citizens of this country are called upon to surrender in time of war.

Rather, in time of war, the citizen must be more alert to the preservation of his right to control his Government. He must be most watchful of the encroachment of the military upon the civil power. He must beware of those precedents in support of arbitrary action by administration officials which, excused on the pleas of necessity in war time, become the fixed rule when the necessity has passed and normal conditions have been restored.

More than all, the citizen and his representative in Congress in time of war must maintain his right of free speech.

More than in times of peace it is necessary that the channels for free public discussion of governmental policies shall be open and unclogged. I believe, Mr. President, that I am now touching upon the most important question in this country today -- and that is the right of the citizens of this country and their representatives in Congress to discuss in an orderly way, frankly and publicly and without fear, from the platform and through the press, every important phase of this war; its causes, and manner in which it should be conducted, and the terms upon which peace should be made.

The belief which is becoming widespread in this land that this most fundamental right is being denied to the citizens of this country is a fact, the tremendous significance of which those in authority have not yet begun to appreciate. I am contending, Mr. President, for the great fundamental right of the sovereign people of this country to make their voice heard and have that voice heeded upon the great questions arising out of this war, including not only how the war shall be prosecuted but the conditions upon which it may be terminated with a due regard for the rights and the honor of this Nation and the interests of humanity.

I am contending for this right because the exercise of it is necessary to the welfare, to the existence of this Government, to the successful conduct of this war, and to a peace which shall be enduring and for the best interests of this country.

Suppose success attends the attempt to stifle all discussion of the issues of this war, all discussions of the terms upon which it should be concluded, all discussion of the objects and purposes to be accomplished by it, and concede the demand of the war-mad press and war extremists that they monopolize the right of public utterance upon these questions unchallenged. What think you would be the consequences to this country not only during the war but after the war?

Mr. President, our Government, above all others, is founded on the right of the people freely to discuss all matters pertaining to their Government, in war not less than in peace. It is true, sir, that Members of the House of Representatives are elected for two years, the President for four years, and the Members of the Senate for six years, and during their temporary official terms these officers constitute what is called the Government.

But back of them always is the controlling, sovereign power of the People, and when the people can make their will known, the faithful officer will obey that will. Though the right of the People to express their will by ballot is suspended during the term office of the elected official, nevertheless the duty of the official to obey the popular will shall continue throughout his entire term of office. How can that popular will express itself between elections except by meetings, by speeches, by publications, by petitions, and by addresses to the representatives of the people?

Any man who seeks to set a limit upon those rights, whether in war or peace, aims a blow at the most vital part of our Government. And then, as the time for election approaches and the official is called to account for his stewardship -- not a day, not a wee, not a month, before the election, but a year or more before it, if the people choose -- they must have the right to the freest possible discussion of every question upon which their representative has acted, of the merits of every measure he has supported or opposed, of every vote he has cast, and every speech that he has made.

And before this great fundamental right every other must, if necessary, give way. For in no other manner can representative government be preserved.

Robert M. La Follette: Free Speech in Wartime (Abridged) delivered 6 Oct 1917 Washington, DC

2006-01-11T14:17:00.000-05:00

Growing up in Hartsville, SC I always thought that Charleston was some sort of wonderland of culture and refinement. I was wrong. It just has more strip malls and all the same generic shopping places (Target, Marshalls, Bed Bath & Beyond, the ubiquitous Wal-Mart) and bad movie theaters. I mean yes, there is the symphony, but the parking sucks and though they aren't bad, the performances put on at FSU by the music and theatre departments could certainly give them a run for their money.

Is it just me, or has all the glamour and "shiny" gone out of the world? It seems that every city is more or less alike. Of course there are places unique to each region, but honestly the same stupid people live everywhere you go.

This being the case why must we constantly try to convince the world that our little region is better than all the rest, and by right of being born there (or just living there for that matter) we are somehow better than all the poor schmucks that live elsewhere? And similarly, why if you are unhappy where you are that elsewhere appears to be the shining hope of a better and happier life (the weather is beautiful aka it must be better there than here)? AND if you do move then you expect somehow that all the things you liked at your old place MUST be exactly the same at the new location because it is "perfect" and as such the things you liked "obviously" must be the same. (Aka all of the complainers that move to the South and then refuse to try shrimp and grits, whine about "stupid red-necks" and my all-time favorite that I just heard today from a classmate "Stupid Ho-Down Barbeques").

I suppose it is too much to ask to just get along and get over the fact that as an adult the world is just not as cool as we expected it to be when we were children looking at the future. Responsiblity is everywhere you turn, and I admit it, it grates on me that I am in the last little set of my friends that isn't engaged or married. I don't mean to complain (well, yes I do but that is beside the point) but where is that damn Prince Charming? Did he get lost? Stranded? Decided it wasn't worth the drive with gas prices being what they are?

Never mind me. I am just getting a little tired of waiting for everyone to just get along, get in line, and just damn it "BE NICE".

2006-01-10T17:56:00.000-05:00

Christmas 2005

2006-01-10T17:48:00.000-05:00

I'd rather be on Christmas vacation.

I had much more time to go to Kung Fu, less worries about school...and Christmas parties are much more fun than the everyday grind. I may just be bitter that I twisted my ankle... twice... yesterday at Kung Fu and subsequently have turned into a less than graceful not-so-ninja.

Bleh. And I have to go to T'ai Chi tonight and try to stand on one leg on said throbbing ankle. Them's the breaks.

2006-01-10T17:45:00.000-05:00

Isn't he just the cutest.

Well, I admit he just looks like a demon eyed black smear, but you try taking a picture of a black cat that never wants to sit still. Yes indeed, I don't wanna study.

2005-11-09T23:56:00.000-05:00

Day 1
Let's see if I can keep up with something like this....

Looking at the timespan from when I started and now...Obviously NOT.