Carle Volunteer - Acute Care

Last year, I volunteered at Carle Hospital's Rehab Unit. I helped an Occupational Therapist (OT) assist in activities of daily living (cleaning, dressing) and start rehabilitation exercises.

This semester, I volunteered at Carle Hospital's Acute Care Unit. In this unit, the patients aren't in rehab yet. This department of OTs are in charge of assessing whether or not a patient needs OT. I shadowed an OT as we went around to all parts of the hospital--Cardiac Center, Primary Stroke Center, Intensive Care Unit (ICU) etc--to evaluate the patients' level of functioning.

I can't wait until I can continue next semester. Hopefully, my schedule permits me to volunteer in Outpatient. When I first volunteered in Carle Hospital's Rehab Unit, that was inpatient. After their time there, some patients would go to an outpatient facility (out of the hospital) where they continue their rehabilitation. During outpatient, patients are usually stronger and more independent. They've regained a lot of strength, but they may still need help getting back to their normal level of daily life functioning. For example, if a stroke patient has lost their ability to use their right side but they're strong enough to work with their left arm and leg, during outpatient therapy the individual may work on adapting new ways to cook and clean and change and bathe. They're relearning skills to regain their independence.

I haven't had an opportunity to observe here yet, but we'll see....maybe next semester.

I Quit...

I thought about it all the time...before class, during class, while eating, while homeworking, while studying. It became such a big part of my life, and I loved it. But at the same time, I hated it. It was draining so much of my energy day in and day out and frankly, I really didn't need it in my life right now. It was useless. On December 5th, 2011, I had a kind of intervention with my roommate/best friend Jeff. It was time I let it go and call it quits.

On December 5th, I decided to officially stop playing Tetris battle on Facebook.

I tried to make it sound really dramatic in the beginning, but my bad habit probably isn't thaat dramatic. It was pretty bad though. You know you have to stop when you wake up in the morning groggy as hell, turn on the laptop, and immediately start playing. You know you have to stop when you stay up until 4am in the morning on school nights just playing Tetris. And you definitely know you have to start when you imagine tiles falling in all your lectures. Day dreams are supposed to be cooler than that!

In all seriousness, it was a nasty habit and whenever there's a habit, you gotta kick it! That's one of my philosophies--I don't like making habits of anything. The idea of being so dependent on something is so unappealing. I don't want to have to do anything. I don't want to have to clean or have to exercise or have to ... shower. LOL! If I don't do it, it won't kill me. I want to have the control... I don't want a habit to control me. I wanted the freedom of choice, but there was no freedom from Tetris until I quit it. It was very obsessive and it wasted so much of my time--time I could have spent with my friends or myself or my studies ETC ETC ETC.

Since quitting tetris, I was able to allot my time so much more productively. My proudest achievement is that I started reading more. ("What?! Henry Guan reads?!") Yeah, jerks!! I've been reading!! AND MORE!!!

Reading. Blogging. Yoga. Reading Blogs. Reading About Yoga. Reading Blogs About Yoga.

My name is Henry Guan, and I'm a Tetris-holic. NOT! 


^^^----that was a lame way to end a post.

                        ^^^----that was a lam-ER way to end a post.

Pasta Tex Mex Mess

We all love food. We all eat food...so I'm going to keep having food posts. Besides, as I said in an earlier post, I'm really happy with myself...that I'm cooking things.

/goes back to check previous posts.

Okay... I can't find if I actually posted anywhere that I'm really proud of myself. It may have been another one of those things where I only had the thought in my mind, but I also thought I said it or wrote it or otherwise. You guys have had that right?

Person 1: Hey! You never reminded me to take a shower yesterday!
You: Yeah, I did. I called you right after The Price Is Right.
Person 1: I never got any phone calls.
You: Hm... I must have just thought I did all that. 


As I'm reading that, I'm getting confused. Basically, I made up a memory. I have a lot of those moments. They're pretty funny in hindsight though.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Anyways, I was really hungry and just as I was about to make rice, I decided to make pasta instead. I haven't made it all semester even though we have about 8 boxes of pasta in our apartment.

"Macro"

"Flash"

Ingredients

-whole wheat pasta

-potatoes (cubed)

-onions 

-Ragu pasta sauce

-Tex Mex Fiesta seasoning

-sharp cheddar cheese

My thought/cooking

-Scooping rice. "Hm...I've never made pasta. Let's have that instead"

-"We still have potatoes from the beginning of the semester and onions from Thanksgiving"

-Cuts up potatoes and onions

-Boils pasta, potatoes, and onions all together

-Once ingredients are fully cooked, brought it from Med heat to Low heat

-Pour in Ragu sauce

-"Hm... I want to add more stuff" Scans counter of seasonings--salt, pepper, olive oil, soy sauce, cinnamon, lemon pepper, TEX MEX FIESTA SEASONING. "I don't know if I've ever had this."

-Dump a bunch of Tex Mex Fiesta Seasoning onto pot and mix.

-Dump pasta into bowl

-"Hm....is there anything else I can add" Sees bag of sharp cheddar with a little left

-Sprinkle cheese on top of pasta and microwave.

-Eat!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The other day, I was talking to my little cousin Jerry about cooking and how neither of us really know how. I can throw ingredients together and create foods that are edible (at least for me), but I'm not even close to being able to say I can cook. Jerry and I are planning to learn to cook over winter break. We don't know what we'll be cooking, but I'm super excited! 

Fried Ricer

Man oh man, I've been really happy with myself lately. I'm actually cooking things. I know it's nothing fancy, but I'm actually choosing to cook real food instead of just eating cereal or eating out. My main motivation -- not wasting food.

Today afternoon (does that sound right?...."today afternoon"), I made fried rice! Yum!!

Ingredients
-leftover rice from two days ago
-leftover green beans from two days ago
-last egg left
-spam

"Got rice, ____? Got rice? Got food, got soup, got spice?"

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

I just finished my fried rice, and I'm still hungry. Now I'm gonna eat some cereal.
.
.
.
.
.
Yum...Oatmeal Squares.

We Got Stacks

Boy oh boy! The first week back to work after Thanksgiving break was rough!!

I don't know if it's that I'm not used to the work anymore after a whole week off, or was it really as busy as it felt?

A half hour felt like an hour. An hour felt like two hours. By the time it was the end of the 5-hour shift, it felt like a whole day has gone by.

Regardless, we still gotta have fun in the dishroom, right?

Sadly, I only have two more weeks working in the dishroom, so I want to enjoy it while it lasts. It really was a great job!

Feeling French.

I had about a whole loaf of bread I've had since two weeks ago, and I was afraid it'll go bad....


"it has already gone past it's 'sell by' date...but it's been preserved in the fridge...but it's been two weeks...but it's a whole loaf of bread"

....so I ate it all.

I ate 4 slices on its own and I French toasted about 11 and I still have a few slices left.

HOW?!?!

Anyways, it was delicious but dry.....but delicious.

Ingredients
-bread
-eggs
-Vanilla extract
-ground cinnamon
-table sugar
-LOVE (<----womp womp...uncreative...lame)

Thanksgiving 2011

At Golden Harbor. 

Thanksgiving at the Apartment.

...with Mark too.

And can't forget about the family.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Thanksgiving is a day to give thanks. I don't know how often we think of that nowadays. Sometimes it seems like some take it just as an opportunity to pig out and eat food. Do we give thanks to the people who prepared it, planned the events or the people who you shared it with? Outside of Thanksgiving, do we think about what we're thankful for in life?

As everyone else always says, I'm really thankful for my friends and family. However, how often do we tell our friends and family? Better yet, how often do we mean it? How do you know that I'm not just saying I'm thankful just to be a nice guy? Did I think about what it means to be thankful...or why do I feel thankful towards those friends and family? And another question -- how often do we show it?

I've had a really rough semester since school started and my year before that wasn't so awesome either. I've had a lot of ups and downs...struggles to be happy. Without going into details about all that, it's made me really think about what I have to be thankful for. Whether you believe me or not, I really am thankful for a lot of my friends and my family.

When you're in a really deep hole, you first need something to grab onto, then you use your own strength to pull yourself out. In this case, I grabbed onto a lot of things. Friends, new and old, held out their hands for me. Family held out their hands for me. And the thought of friends and family, who I knew truly cared about me, gave me the strength to pull myself out.

I'm thankful for all of these people.

Please, truly think about who you're thankful for. Tell them, show them. Don't take the important people in your life for granted.

REVEALING : 2011 - 2012 APARTMENT

It's been almost a whole semester already, and I'm only showing y'all my apartment NOW. I apologize. I neglected to take time out to clean and organize things...and I refused to take pictures and stuff when it's really messy. Besides, I didn't really do much unpacking until weeks into the school year.

Come Thanksgiving, I did considerable cleaning and stuff. Although there are a lot of bags packed to go back to Chicago, it's still relatively neat. So, I thought it would be a good time to show my apartment now. Legoo!

By the way, it's going to be a really long blog post with a lot of pictures. I tried to order it so as you scroll down, it's almost like a tour around the apartment. Try to just follow the pictures as if it were a slideshow. Bon appétit.

Zoom in +1

Zoom in +2

Opens door. "WELCOME"

Still looking straight.

(There's the storage room with water, longboard, skateboard, and bikes in front)

Turns a little to the right.

(Nice lamp on the dining room table, bunch o' bags, and sofas to the right)

In the back, you can start peeking into our kitchen and see the hallway in between the two walls. 

Turning more to the right.

(A very comfy couch and two armchairs...tv on top of table in the corner)

We will begin to enter the hallway area toward the kitchen and rooms.

Spices and sauces etc.

This area is awesome! Guests (or me) can peek through this little "window" from the living room and see what's cooking. It's to make sure all cooking is done cleanly. Just kidding. Who cares? :Þ

Turns toward hallway.

hEy look! It's Jeff and I's rooms!! But we have to check out the kitchen really fast first.

Kitchen. Check. Now let's see the rooms. Well....mine only.

"Henry Guan" sign done beautifully by my little cousins Judy and Lisa <3

*creeeaakk*

"Here we go. Brace yourself."

Full mattress, bikes I'm storing for friends of mine. Croco-gator tucked away in the corner.

When the door opens without stepping in, this is basically what you see. It's pretty small. 

Not shown in this picture - Drawers (to the left), closet (right)  

Drawers.

Closet. 

Drawers again...but we're gonna zoom in.

A beautiful painting (also done by little cousins Judy and Lisa) hangs above photo collages of my family and friends. Also, a bunch of assorted items.

Zoom in +1

Batman and ....

... Batman in a Box. 

"You like?"

I really like living in an apartment this year. I love sharing a place that's not a dinky dormroom with my best friend, Jeff. It's also really cozy, so it's wonderful having friends visit or hangouts here. It's so cozy. 

It's ironic how I just took pictures of my apartment this year after signing a lease for a new apartment for next year just a few days ago.

P.S. I know "Bon appétit" doesn't make sense in this context, but I just wanted to use it. 

P.P.S. I got a deck of cards for $0.25 cents the other day that I really, really like!

Dishroom Weekend

¡Hola!

Working in the dishroom this semester has been really great! The intense labor and late hours of washing dishes until midnight doesn't even phase me anymore, because it's soooooooo worth it. 

In the beginning of the school year, when I signed up to work in the dishrooms, the other dining hall workers felt bad cause I had the "hardest job"...compared to serving desserts or cleaning tables or etc. It frightened me a little. It's ironic though how the "hardest job" turned out to be so much fun. I can't even imagine doing the other jobs. Dishroom allows me to stay awake the whole time because there's always work or goofing off to do. We're hidden in the back instead of out in the open cafeteria, so we can basically do whatever we want -- Sing, dance, scream, throw ice around, slip and slide, or.....

..............STACK 150 PLATES!!!!!

It was about a foot away from touching the ceiling.

Another great thing about being in dishroom, it's easy to get to know each other really well and get closer. We're all pretty much stuck back there. We can't go out and socialize with people, but we socialize with each other. I can sincerely say I've made some good buddies working there.

In fact, in lieu of the upcoming holiday, we decided to do a little Thanksgiving celebration two weeks before the actual holiday on the 12th of November. We couldn't do it the following weekend cause we would've been gone on Thanksgiving break. yEp!!

Saturday, November 12th - Dishroom Danksgiving

After our different agendas for Saturday morning, we met up at Taco Bell in the afternoon for our Taco Bell Thanksgiving Dinner. HAHAHA! It was a pretty funny idea. We all ended up eating before anyways, so we just got something tiny from Taco Bell. 

Nacho BellGrande

Yum...I had the Nacho BellGrande. Becky and I used to like this a lot when we were younger. Still good!! :[]

After picking up some grub-a-dub-dub at TB (Cool kids call Taco Bell "TB"), we walked like half a block back to my apartment and hung out and junk until they had work at DISHROOM (WOOT WOOT!) around 7:30pm. I walked with them and checked out their apartments. It was a nice day. DISHROOM DISCIPLES! SPREAD OUT!! <---uh...we don't say that...I don't know why I did. 

Anyways, on to the next day. 

Sunday, November 13th - Breakfast w/ Late Dinner-ers
We're the late dinner-ers...cause we work together during Late Dinner. LOL.

Anyways...

We had plans to grab some breakfast at like 10am. Driving around campus during Dad's Weekend (an organized weekend where a bunch of dads visited their sons and daughters at UIUC) looking for a place to eat was such a pain in the butt. EVERYTHING WAS CROWDED!! Even when we drove out of campus to Bob Evans, the restaurant was packed. It was hard to settle for a sit-down place where we could eat. We compromised with Panera and I HAD MY FIRST BREAD BOWL. Bread-in-a-soup bowl? Soup-in-a-bread bowl? I don't know. I think it's just called Bread Bowl. I forgot to take pictures, but it was pretty good.

We had a good half an hour to sit and eat before Christian had to drive me to dance practice at 12:30pm. Most of our time was spent driving around, but it was still pretty fun. 

All Hallow's Evening

BOO!

Okay... I didn't look like that. I wish. I just made the picture a lot darker. 

Darn lighting....now I look barely scary. Maybe it looked scarier in person. Yes. Yes it did. Anyways, thanks to Jamie and Venus for helping me do the make-up. It was hella fun. 

Outfit for the night. 

Half make-up

Anyways, I hope everyone had a great Halloween weekend. For the most part, I really enjoyed mine. yEp yEp!

Bleeper McBleeper

yEah...it's a bit early to be carving pumpkins....OR IS IT!?

This is the first pumpkin carving anything I was a part of. I didn't do any carving...BUT I diiiddd provide a home for Expletive McExpletive and a Sharpie to color in its unibrow.

It's super duper cute!!!

I mean scary. BOO!!

AAA Semi-Formal & IHOP - International House of POOP!!

On Friday, AAA (Asian American Association) had it's annual .... or is it semesteral (<---that's not a word)....Semi-Formal Dance. This is another one of those homecoming/prom things where everyone gets all spiffed up and dances. Unfortunately, I never had too much fun at these things. I've always thought it was a bit awkward dancing with so much people around, or dancing with a girl or whatever. Well....SCREW THAT! At this dance, I was gonna have fun!! Period.

And I did. Smiles.

A little intro about the dance:

This year's AAA 25th Anniversary Semi-Formal Dance had a Cinderella theme. All the girls put their right shoe on seats that were lined up on one side of the wall,

..., the guys choose a shoe, and find the girl...

...that the shoe matches with.

And then....THE FUN BEGINS!!

For most of the time, people were just dancing in circles and it was so much fun! Once in a while, people would go into the center and do their own thing. Once in a while, that'll be me. Or me and Jeff. It was a lot of fun doing the retarded top rock, the Carlton, and the spin&spread eagle with Jeff. Facebook "Like".

Oooh...and I think my friends Bridget and Jenny would be proud to know that I started a party boy line. It was bangin' too! ....but eventually, it was just very tiresome jumping side to side and moving around the room. That's when the party boy line dissembled. We were just too exhausted. But it was a huge success!!
----for those who don't know, we call this (↓)  the "Party Boy" ... at 02:52-----

What else happened?
Jeff requested Sugarhill Gang's "Jump On It" and when they played that, ....yo, my boy and I had to do that thang on the stage. A bunch of other guys gathered on the stage and did the Jump On It dance with us while everyone on the floor did it too.

We had a cha cha line. And the Cha Cha Slide. For "Party Rock Anthem", we did the shuffle. We did the Cupid Shuffle. A few times people would go on stage and sing to the song in the mic. I did that a few times...very poorly for Fountain of Wayne's "Stacy's Mom" and Jimmy Eat World's "The Middle". yEah... I was really excited and happy and just wanted to sing, but I didn't really know the lyrics. Smiles. STILL FUN!!

Okay... I'm going to wrap it up about the dance, but I'm so happy the dance kicked off so well. I had a ton of fun dancing and singing and dancing and sweating and moving and grooving with no shoeings. Too bad I wasn't the best "Prince" for my "Cinderella" though. I think I was missing in action a lot and just doing my own thing. I didn't really dance with her. I didn't even take a picture with her. yEah....to my little cousins....don't do that. Don't be a bad date. :P In my defense, she was dancing the whole time too though, so she had fun. yEp yEp!

Group Picture!

AFTERPARTY!!

IHOP.

I was starving so my friend JustinY and I got the unlimited pancakes that came with a 2egg+hashbrowns combo for $5!! SO CHEAP! AND SO MUCH FOOD!! Perfect! We started a competition to see who could eat the most pancakes, and it was ...... not at all fun. Pancakes do not taste very good and after about 3 pancakes, they just suck. We got up to 8 pancakes and we called it a truce. Then, I went to the washroom to wash up and pee before leaving (everyone was waiting on the two of us and our pancakes). When I got back, his last two pancakes were gone, so I had to match him. I ended up eating 10 pancakes and highly regretting it. It turns out the jerk had his two pancakes taken away, but left a few scraps to look like he ate it. What a sneaky snake.

At night, my taste buds were bleeding!!!!! NO JOKE!!! It may have been from brushing, but I also partially blame it eating so many pancakes, which have a rough surface. Right? Right? Thus, eating a lot would create a lot of friction on the surface of your tongue. Mostly, I blame Justin. :P WAIT! I should blame Jeff too!! It was his idea to have the competition in the first place. /shakes fist at Jeff.

Potpourri

So, I'm just going to throw in a potpourri of pictures I took over this month or so. Quick and painless! There's barely any reading.

#1:

Epic Meal Time - Fried Rice w/ Ground Turkey, Mushrooms, Green Beans, and Two Egg Over Easys

I ate the whole thing....

#2:

"Mom! This looks like a birdie!"

#3:

Coca-Cola - $1.29

 I drank soda. I thought it would help me stay awake 'cause I had to study. Instead, I got a big headache and knocked out.


#4:

"Who loves tapioca pudding?" "I loves tapioca pudding!"

 That was a reference to Kenan & Kel...just in case y'all didn't know. Anyways, I had lunch dinner one day at ISR (where I used to dorm), and they had tapioca pudding!! I had to load up on that---with granola, of course.

#5:

Henry Jr? 

 Allen had a make-your-own-stuffed-monster event or something. I stayed for like 3 hours making this. It was really fun actually.

First, choose a fabric/pattern. They had a neato heart pattern. It was either this or jeans. This is aight.


Second, design your monster. I can't remember who thought of doing a hand-shape: me or a lovely Kim from Allen. Kim, for sure, drew one out though and it was super cute. I'm sorry I was not able to capture the cuteness because I messed up with outlline of it as I made the monster.

Third, trace and cut monster shape into two pieces of fabric.

Fourth, sew fabrics together using a 2stepforward,1stepbackward sewing technique. I think this may have been the first time I sewed something for reals-reals. Now I can sew my own pants and my ripped underwear :D

Fifth, leave an opening and stuff the monster. My monster was stuffed with polyester something.

Sixth, sew opening with ladder stitch. This was fun learning and fun doing. I'm too sleepy to describe how to do it. Look it up!

Final, decorate the monster up with felt and stuff. I made the eyes. Originally, I wanted to make a Harry Potter-type glasses. I just kept it as eyes instead. All the other pieces are scraps I found on the floor/table/counter that I just put together.

This was incredibly fun...regardless of the three-hours spent. I will consider doing more of these projects in the future.



#6:

Quesadilla Leftovers A La Mode

 I don't know what "a la mode" is or even if I'm spelling it correctly. We had tortillas, and we had groceries from a long while. Why not combine it all and not waste food.

The first is leftover rice, soy sauce, sliced potatoes, and those Chinese radish things in a jar.

The second and third quesadillas are grilled with Mexican cheese and Mozarella cheese, tomatoes, and thinly sliced potatoes.

They were all delicious!!


#7:

Snowman made of plates = plateman?

As some may know, I work in the dining hall dishroom on Wed/Thu from 8pm to nearly 1am. I love being in the dishroom regardless of the long, late hours. On Wednesday, we've got a Dishroom Disciples Gang. On Thursday, we don't have a gang name, but all get along like no other. And I walk home with a buddy who lives right by me. Good stuff. Anyways, this is a snowman thing I attempted to make out of plates. It's got a hat and fork arms. 

#8:

Last but not least. The following is a video of a squirrel. So cute!! Anyways, I don't remember the context or how we started talking about it  but my friends Teresa, Anna, and I were talking about squirrel sounds. I knew what they sounded like, but it was impossible to mimick it. Instead of mimicking it, this video can just show y'all (and them) how a squirrel sounds. It's so awesome!! 

I believe this is their mating call....they were SOOO hitting on me.