So today I was coming home to my apt from spending Labor Day weekend at boyfriend's place in Santa Cruz, which involves taking the HWY17 bus from the sc metro to San Jose Diridon station, then taking the 180/181 bus to Fremont BART, and then bart to downtown Berkeley. At the 17 bus stop, there was this ghetto black guy with a doorag cussing someone out on the phone for like 20 minutes ("Nigga you a fucking beeitch nigga!"). Not gonna lie, I was pretty scared lol.

So anyway, the 17 comes & everyone gets on. I reach sj right when the 180 bus leaves, so i have to wait another 45 min at the bus stop. The black guy from the 17 stop ends up waiting for the same bus. Being scared, I do all I can to avoid eye contact, but he still ends up sitting down next to me. He seems to have calmed down by now. He asks me if I have change for a 5 for the bus fare ($3.50). I tell him I don't, but I can give him my change & he can pay for the both of us. He says thanks & starts talking to me after that.

This is what I can remember of our conversation:
Black Guy: You goin to Fremont?
Me: Naw I'm going to Berkeley.
BG: Ohh Berkeley. You live there?
Me: Naw I go to school there.
BG: Oh you go to Cal?
Me: Yeah.
BG: Dayummm girl, you intelligent!
Me: LOL
BG: You ever go to the football games or basketball games?
Me: Yeah I got season tickets for the football games.
BG: You ever see the players around campus & shit?
Me: Naw.
BG: Cuz I bet dey all be tryna get atchu!
Me: LOL
BG: -whips out his phone- Whass yo name & number girl?

LOL he asked me for my name & number like 3 times during the convo but I just kinda brushed it off. I have never been so blatantly hit on before HAHA what an experience. Although I gotta admit, he was a lot nicer than I expected.

Nothing else exciting happened. Good day.


Love,
Kat

I lost my pencil bag ;< so sad. I think I left it in class (math 53 section in Evans) & when I went back it was gonezo. I've had that pencil bag since sophomore year in high school when my mom bought it for me in Taiwan. It was cute & brown & not too big & not too small & it said Lazy Cat on it & IT WAS THE PERFECT PENCIL BAG. Gosh. 5 years of beloved memories with that pencil bag. Lost. Boooo. We had a good run, pb.

I actually really am kinda sad that I lost it; it had all my favorite pens & pencils. Not to mention erasers, white-out, lead, ruler, highlighter, MY LOVE & CARE put into making the perfect pencil bag package.

Yeah you don't care. But I care. I miss my pb ;< Now I'm using this dinky old lead pencil that squeaks when I write & an ugly standard pink eraser, both borrowed from my awesome new roommate Kim. Thanks Kim, but I really need new writing supplies boooooooo.

Btw does anyone have a copy of Microsoft Word I can borrow? My new laptop only came with Microsoft Works Word Processor & I hate it. Let me know if you do please, you'll have my eternal gratitude.

The end.

Love,
Kat

P.S. I woke up at 5am today to do hw. Yay me.
P.P.S. Multivariable calculus is hard. Linear algebra is hard. Math is hard. I suck at math.
P.P.P.S. I have a mv calc midterm tmrw. & a lin alg quiz tmrw. & a response paper due tmrw. Fuck my life.
P.P.P.P.S. At least I finished my math hw!
P.P.P.P.P.S. This is fun.
P.P.P.P.P.P.S. I'm going back to sleep, goodnight.

My mom is the greatest.

I called her today at about 11AM & asked her to call me at noon to wake me up because I wanted to take a nap before my midterm at 2. At about 12:10, I woke up to my own alarm. I wondered why my mom hadn't called, but decided she probably got swamped at work & forgot. In the course of the next hour, I received four different phone calls from my mom's work acquaintances & a relative in the bay area. They all told me the same thing--there was an earthquake in socal & her calls were not going through. However, she was able to reach the people who called me through an email asking someone to call me to make sure I was up in time.

So yeah, she's pretty much amazing. 5.4 magnitude earthquake at 11:42 AM where she's at & her first thought is making sure I'm awake for my midterm. I love her.

Also, I'm glad barely anyone was hurt by the earthquake & that there was minimal damage. Good job socal.

On a totally different note, I've discovered a new pet peeve of mine. I recently get so annoyed when people ask me shallow courtesy questions. How are you? Fine. How's school? Fine. How was your weekend? Fine. How's life? Fine. FINE. FINE. ABSOFUCKINGLUTELY FINE. Let's face it, you don't really care, & I don't really want to waste my time giving you an answer you don't care about.

I mean, it's different if the two of you are close but haven't spoken in some time & are catching up--I don't mind then. But when you ask me how my day was just to be polite, SAVE IT. I will give you one of 3 shallow answers: "It was great!" "It was fine." "It was terrible." If my day was great, you just killed it a little by annoying me with a stupid question. If my day was fine, that means it was boring & nothing interesting happened, so refer to "great day" scenario. If my day was terrible, you will most likely offer me superficial words of sympathy, which will have absolutely zero effect on cheering me up. And guess what? Congrats, you just made my terrible day worse.

In conclusion, STOP WITH THE ANNOYING PLEASANTRIES. If you really want to know what's going on with me, just read this stupid xanga. I will most likely write about all my stupendously wonderful and/or disappointingly terrible experiences that I think are worth mentioning. I like talking to people, but I hate dealing with all the shallow niceties that people habitually start conversations with. So stop it. Yeah, I'm talking to you.

What else is new with me? Christine officially moved out this past weekend. Tear. But I also met my new apartment mate Kim for the first time; she seems pretty cool. Yeah.

Summer's halfway over; make the most of the time you have left!


Until next time,
Kat

P.S. 我才發現我可以在這裡打中文. 我最近在練習中文. Hehe.
P.P.S. I think I'm the only one I know who hasn't seen Dark Knight yet. Ugh.
P.P.P.S. I CAN'T WAIT FOR BEIJING SUMMER OLYMPICS 08/08/08!!!!!!!

I used to dislike hospitals but now I really truly hate them. To be fair, I know they're awesome because people's lives are saved in hospitals & all that, but I just have no love for them at all. I spent the past weekend (Fri 04/25 - Mon 04/28) in the Intensive Care Unit at Alta Bates Medical Center in Berkeley.

WARNING: This entry is really long (& I mean really long). For those of you who want the short story, I basically spent the weekend in the hospital because I had Diabetic Ketoacidosis along with dehydration & infection. For those who want to know all the dirty details, read on. I won't be offended if you don't read the whole thing. I wrote it all on paper while I was in the hospital because I had A LOT of free time. Even if no one reads it (because really, who uses Xanga anymore?), it's a good reminder to myself what I went through.

Here we goooooooo.......


I awoke abruptly on Friday, April 25 with a pressing urge to throw up. I quickly ran to the bathroom and did so in the toilet. Let me tell you something - I hate throwing up. I feel weak & helpless when I puke, especially since I can't just take some medicine to make it go away. Oh, & the sour taste in my mouth after I'm done? Absolutely disgusting. Little did I know I would throw up 6 more times in the next 4 hours. Joy. (For the record, I did not drink the night before, nor am I pregnant. You'd be surprised how many times I was asked haha)

Anyway, the first 3 instances all occurred within the comfort of my apartment, & all within 20 minutes. All that came up was food - chunks of noodles (the remains of my meal the night before). Considering how I felt, I decided to skip my 11 AM class. I debated whether or not to go to my Danceworx Sproul show (which was supposed to be from 12-1). At 11:40, I felt marginally better & since I hadn't puked in half an hour, I decided to go, at least to save Allyson & Lauren (my co-showcase coordinators) some stress.

Bad idea. By the time I walked to Upper Sproul, I was feeling like shit again. I told Allyson what was going & she was super understanding, even under stress (because of some technical difficulties). The show eventually got under way & all I did was play the music behind some bushes (rather than MCing like I was supposed to). I drank a lot of water, & by the time my dance was up, I was feeling much better. So I thought, 'what the hell, I'll just do it'. If I can handle dancing after getting kicked in the head (LOL Loretta), I could handle this.

Boy, was I wrong. Halfway through the dance (& pretty much screwing up every other 8-count) I had to step out on the side because I was feeling so lightheaded & nauseous. I tried drinking water, but within 5 minutes I had thrown up again. This time it was just a whole lotta water that came up. By the time the show ended, I had thrown up again - more water & some stomach acid. I was miserable.

I sat in the shade for 15 min after everyone had left, & then got up to go to GBC (Golden Bear Cafe) to buy more water & some Goldpeak's sweetened green tea (yum!) because I was super thirsty. I saw Bee at the GBC & decided to sit with her, Allyson, Irene, & Alyssa for a while before walking home. I drank half my tea & water before leaving to go home. After walking a couple steps, I felt that annoying urge again, so I ran to the nearest trashcan & threw up all the liquids I had just drank. I sat down on a nearby bench to rest, & not 3 minutes later I saw a hobo in a wheelchair digging around in the trashcan I had just puked in. I felt sooooo bad but I didn't say anything cause I was so embarrassed. :(

My walk home took like 30 minutes with frequent breaks by the side of the road. I now officially hate that uphill climb hahaha but at least I got home without barfing again! I called my mom when I got hoome, telling her what was happening, & she was really concerned. She told me to go see a doctor, but I didn't want to, since I had no way to get there & I definitely didn't want to walk. I was also feeling pretty damn nauseous, so I didn't want to move at all. I hung up & laid in bed, trying to ignore the nausea & fall asleep. I got up only to get water (I got thirsty like every 15 min).

In the middle of another phone call with mom (she called to see how I was doing), I threw up again in the bathroom. This time, after all the water & stomach acid came up, I kept throwing up, but nothing came out. Freaking terrible feeling, just the pain of those muscles clenching but with nothing coming out & no idea when it would end - ugh x29385623985.

After that, I called the advice hotline for the Tang Center (it's like Cal's medical center kinda) & they told me to go there immediately, giving me the number for a taxi service. I called for a taxi & was dropped off at the Tang Center - Urgent Care Clinic at 4:10 PM. They took my vitals (temperature, blood pressure, pulse, etc.) & put me on an IV drip. They also drew some blood for tests. Apparently, I have really small veins because they missed A LOT. Boooo.

After some tests, they determined that my blood sugar was critical-high 500+ (normal is 70-120), my white blood cell count was at 31000 (normal is 5k-10k; a high count suggests infection), & I was super dehydrated. Different people kept coming into the room to ask me the same questions (what happened? does my stomach hurt? have I been sick lately? did I eat anything strange? how long have I had diabetes? etcetc). They ended up calling the local hospital (Alta Bates) to transfer me there because they would be able to take better care of me (better equipment, more doctors/nurses etc).

Within minutes, an ambulance & some firefighters came. They asked me the exact same questions before moving me onto a gurney & rolling me into the ambulance (my first time in one! haha). The firefighter/medic guy took my vitals again & asked me the same questions (GOSH). We arrived at the hospital & I was put in the ER; the time was about 6pm. The nurses took my vitals & asked me the same questions AGAIN (you kinda see the pattern here?) & made me change into one of those stupid backless hospital gown things. They had to draw more blood for tests & of course, they missed my veins more than once. :<

I asked the doctor how long I'd have to stay in the hospital & she told me 'at least overnight'. Booo. I stayed in the ER for about 6 more hours, not doing much of anything, because they had to find me a bed. I got really hungry (I hadn't eaten since the day before & even that food was all puked up) but they refused to let me eat until my blood sugars stabilized. My aunt came to visit me & that helped to pass the time but she left after 2 hours. It was ridiculously boring lying in bed hooked to an IV & not being able to do anything.

Finally, at around 12:30 AM, I was wheeled up to the 6th floor to the ICU, where they put me in a bed in a corner room separated by curtains. They still wouldn't let me eat, so eventually I just fell asleep. I think it was the first time in my life I didn't eat for a day. Sad, I know hahaha. (When they finally let me eat, it had been 36+ hours since I last ate. & even then, hospital food is nastyyy.)

The following days until my release were miserable. I was confined to my bed & only allowed to get up to go pee in a commode (like a portable toilet; pretty much a chair with a toilet seat & a tray attached to the bottom to catch the pee) next to my bed.  They attached more IVs to me (typically had 3 going at once - some combination of insulin, saline, potassium, antibiotics, etc.) & drew blood every day for tests (often missing my veins of course). In the end, I was left with 8 battle wounds (from needles) on my left arm & 4 on my right, not to mention the backs of my hands & insides of my elbows were purple & green from the mishaps.

There was absolutely nothing to do in the hospital. I couldn't move from my bed & they wouldn't let me use my cell phone (I apologize to those I couldn't contact) because it could interfere with the machines or something. I had a TV but it only had 13 channels, 3 of which didn't work & 2 of which were in spanish lol. One of the early mornings, I couldn't sleep so I started watching the news, from about 5 AM to 6:30 AM. They played the exact same 5 or 6 news stories for an hour & a half on 4 different news stations. I became an expert on the man that held his daughter captive in a basement for 20 years & had kids with her, the wildfire in socal close to sierra madre & east of pasadena, the toddler that fell from a 3rd story window because the screen broke, and the first homicide in san ramon (or san rafael?) in 2 years, & the fact that obama rejected a lincoln-douglas style debate challenge from clinton. CAN YOU TELL HOW BORED I WAS?! ._. Thank goodness for Grace & my aunt/uncle for visiting & bringing me magazines/books to read.

It was ridiculously hard to sleep there. For one, the floor was NEVER quiet. The beeps from the machines continued 24/7; even if my own machine wasn't beeping, the machine of the patient in the next room or down the hall was sure to be. Nonstop beeping - drove me insane. Even if I did manage to fall asleep, I was woken up every hour by a nurse taking my blood sugar (which means pricking my finger with a needle). Downright miserable. I remember one of the nights, around 4am I was lying awake, & I heard some girl shouting down the hall. She said something along the lines of: 'Are you fucking serious?! Give me a fucking break! It's 4 AM; you won't let me fucking sleep! ...Then let me go home! It's my fucking body!' etc etc. While I felt bad for the nurses, I understood exactly how she felt. =/

There's not much more to say. My condition eventually stabilized; at one point my potassium level was at 2.4 (normal 3.9) & my blood pressure was at 80/35 (optimal 120/80) but I was in good hands & I got a lot better. As much as I hate hospitals, I am really appreciative of the doctors/nurses for what they do. One of my nurses took care of me for a 16 hour shift (wow). Definitely must not be easy.

When they finally let me leave on Monday (I made a deal with my doctor, they wanted to keep me another day), Christine & Jason picked me up from the hospital (thanks guys!) & I was finally able to go home yayyyyyy. My uncle picked me up a couple hours later & took me back to his house in Cupertino (about an hour away from Berkeley) where I've been recuperating/taking it easy all week.

And that's the end of my incredibly miserable weekend. Woooooooooow super long. If you read the whole thing, you must be really bored. Thanks to all of the people who have wished me well, sorry to worry you guys. I'm a lot better now; thanks again for your concern. Please take care of yourselves, staying in hospitals sucks!



Love,
Katrina Torng

Thanks everybody! You all made my day (& night before) wonderful. Love you all!

No longer a teenager,
Kat