Bored Like Usual

Well Christmas is now over. I am already back at Drexel for co-op. Since no one is really left on campus, I've had a lot of free time to do things around my suite. I started an all out cleaning project. I started with one side of my suite, and I'm slowly working around the entire place. So far, I've washed 6 loads of dishes (none happened to be mine somehow), scrubbed both showers, washed the bathroom sinks and counter tops, fully cleaned and sanitized the toilet room, and mopped/vacuumed half of the suite. Overall though, it is much better than when I started. I almost feel safe to walk around in my bare feet, but I still will refrain from doing so until someone brings in industrial cleaners.

Also with my free time, I've had the chance to reflect on many things throughout the year. Of course, there were some ups and downs. I would prefer to think that there were more ups, but I can't say that without feeling I just lied to myself. Many of the "ups" in the end were downs. It's quite unfortunate, but I'm certainly getting past them. I believe that I have moved on with my life, and now I'm looking for new and exciting opportunities. Sometimes I wish brainwashing existed. It seems that would be the best way to forget things, but I'm really not interested in joining a religious cult and drinking the special Kool-aid. With that being said, I'm starting to tap into other areas of my life. I'm also looking to go elsewhere in many aspects. If you're reading too far into this, I'm certainly not transferring schools or leaving for that matter. I just need a change of scenery and such. I hope that new paths open up in the near future that will allow me to do such traveling. This post is certainly vague in many aspects, and I don't think my closest friends would even be able to understand it. I just needed somewhere to write my thoughts. All in all, life is going well enough. Some things certainly could be better, but I feel rushing those things will only make them worse. In the future though, I plan on doing a 180 with my life. Things obviously aren't working out for me. Let's just hope there will be someone there to assist me along the way. Someone absolutely doesn't mean relationship, but I feel I might need some support. Well I think I'm done being vague for now, so I'm just going to end this post. If someone would like to decipher this message, feel free. Any comments or direction would be greatly appreciated. Times are changing for me.

Unofficial Word

I would first like to apologize to everyone that wanted to be updated on my life. I got up at 330am yesterday, and I went to bed at 9pm. It was quite a long day, and I was tired. So now on to my story...

I got a text message from my mother yesterday, and she informed me that my CT Scan was read by a person in my cardiothoracic surgeon's office. This person indicated that everything was fine. I am now just awaiting the official results from my surgeon. I seriously thought it was going to be bad news, but now I'm thoroughly relieved.

If anything else develops with my lungs or life, I'll make sure to update everyone. Thanks again for listening to the wonderful life of Brian Sawford.

More Exciting News

I thought I'd revive my spring/summer blog this morning. I have some news that I thought everyone that facebook-stalks or rss-stalks might want to know. A few weeks ago, I had some chest pain again. It was on the same side as my lung problem this summer. I know what a lung collapse feels like, since my body decided to do it to me twice in three weeks. So after the very slight chest pain, I decided just to go and get my lung checked out. The results came back showing that I had a minor collapse, but this was to be expected. My lung never fully re-inflated from the surgery, and this was perfectly normal. So I had the chest x-rays shipped off to my doctor, and I didn't require any surgical procedure. Crisis Adverted! Recently though, I've been having the same minor chest pain, and I knew eventually it might cause a problem. I just decided to ignore it, since I'm working practically all the time. It would be detrimental to my work career, if I had to take some time off for health concerns. Well, last night I was speaking to my mother on the phone about plans for Thanksgiving Weekend. She informed me that my cardiothoracic surgeon (aka my doctor) called and wanted to schedule a CT Scan on Saturday. My mom said that he wasn't too thrilled about the x-ray films he received in the mail. My guess is that my lung isn't doing any better, and I'll most likely need to have surgery or something during my Winter Break. Hooray for me! As if my life couldn't get anymore exciting... Well I guess I'll just have to roll with the punches on this one. Feel free to stop by or text me if I do end up sitting in a hospital bed again. Well I have to get ready for work now. Have a great day everyone! *Thumbs Up*

Cancellation

Due to recent events, I will not be going to the main campus of Pennsylvania State University this weekend. I have yet to decide if I want to spend the whole weekend at PSB or just come home early. I'm sorry folks. I know you are crushed. I might decide to possibly make a bus trip out for a weekend, during the school year. I'm sorry if I put anyone in a depression. I swear, I will visit one day. I just can't foresee any date at this point. I'm sorry once again.

It Calls My Name v2

I wrote a portion of this post earlier today, but I decided to watch a movie and scrap the post. It wasn't my greatest piece of work, so I thought it would just be easier to start over with version two. Here is the rewrite of the text...

If all goes according to plan, this weekend should be a Nittany Lion weekend. I would like to visit my friends at the Penn State Behrend and Main (University Park) campuses. I have to take into consideration the travel time along with my work schedule. As of now, my boss is expecting me to work everyday except Tuesday and Wednesday. I don't understand his logic considering he didn't want me to work the rest of the summer. I guess now that everyone is gone, he's under-staffed and needs me. If one would spend the time to analyze the situation, one might say that I now hold all the cards. Since I want to do my yearly visits, I propose the following as a rough schedule of events for this weekend.

Friday
6a - Wake Up Call
7a - Leave for Work
8a - Get to Work / Start Work
12p - Leave for Behrend
230p - Arrive at Behrend

Saturday
9a - Leave Behrend for Main
1p - Arrive at Main

Sunday
9a - Leave for Return Voyage
12p - Arrive Home
12:01p - Crash for the remainder of the day to recuperate

To be able to plan such a trip requires excellent timing and cruise control. If the trip is successful, I will be putting 544 miles on my car, and I will be spending about 9 hours 19 minutes in the cramped space that is my car. *cue commercial voice over* This statistical information is brought to you by Google Maps. Google Maps, they are ten times better than MapQuest. *end voice over* I really do hope everyone appreciates my contribute to global warming thanks to these little trips. I guess now that I wasted a few minutes of my life, I can get back to do my usual nothingness.

Periodic Table

I wanted to test out Blogger Mobile, so here is a picture of my newly painted wall.

End of Time (Most Likely Posts Though)

The last blog post I made was a bit depressing, and I do apologize for that post. I was just trying to get over everyone leaving me again. I have spent some time with the last standing college comrade, Chris Tomnay. He has kept home life interesting, since there isn't anything to in this town. As soon as Chris leaves though, I'm seriously all alone again. It isn't going to be fun.

I decided to return to Volkweins for the remainder of the summer. It will give me some extra funding and keep me busy. The last couple of days, I have been preparing for Customer Appreciation Day at work. We converted two warehouse rooms into "Super-Mega Blow-Out" clearance rooms. I highly suggest any interested in musical instruments, sheet music, free food, or prizes to stop by our Pittsburgh store tomorrow (Saturday, September 1st). I will be working and possibly helping out at the registers.

After I finish my work at Volkweins, I will be preparing for my return voyage to Drexel. I will be co-oping for Undergraduate Admissions. I'm really excited to be working with the incoming students and alongside my friends. So if anyone would like to see me, I'll certainly be around campus for the fall and winter quarters.

I would also like to end with a comment regarding this blog. It was initially created for incoming freshmen as a way to transition into the lifestyle of a college student, and I would like to think that this blog initially served its purpose. Eventually, the blog began to revolve around my life, and it strayed a bit from its objective. Since the freshmen will soon be entering Drexel, the need for my blog is no more. I might choose to return and post a few things, when I get bored. I can't make any promises, but I can say that Facebook automatically imports all of my posts, so I might decide to write something from time to time just to keep it active. It was wonderful have readers from the blogosphere and the Facebook community. I expect future posts just to be reflections on my feelings or exciting occurrences in my life. Thanks again everyone for your readership.

Virtually Lonely

This weekend once again marks one of the longest months of my life. This is by the worst thing about going to Drexel. I have to sit back and wait, until it is my time to move in to my sophomore housing. All of my friends have left for college, and I now must sit at home alone. I do, however, know that I am not alone. This the longest stretch for everyone. Last year, I was able to overcome this loneliness by visiting various people at their college. If one is able to visit local colleges, I would suggest making the trip. It helps to pass the time. I remember people always discussing that they worked in the final month before Drexel. This is the best time to get those extra hours at one's summer employment. During this last month, I will be returning to my job from last summer. Up until this point, they have had no need for me. Now that everyone left though, they need me. Being the person that I am, I accepted. I plan on working enough to get some last minute cash, but I plan on visiting some more people at college. I seriously have tried to visit everyone that was humanly possible with my hatred for long distance travels. Once the stragglers leave next weekend, it will be me all alone. I'll have my family and my thoughts. I really don't enjoy free time. It gives me the ability to access my life. I don't enjoy going down that dark path. It ends up being a very destructive segment of my life. Most of my worst thoughts stem from the dark portions of my brain. I could go into a whole dissertation about my skewed pattern of thoughts. It might be healthy for me to write down such problems and address them accordingly, but I don't feel it would benefit my reader(s) in any way. I guess I'll just have to struggle with my mental battlefield.

Sorry this post isn't as exciting or uplifting as some of the rest. If you are looking for happiness, I would suggest looking elsewhere on another blog. Thanks again though if you actually made it to the end of my post. It shows that I might actually be semi-interesting.

All Time Low

Once again, I had another crazy dream. This time it consisted of the entire cast of Scrubs. My life is pretty sad. I have been watching a few episodes of Scrubs everyday. I wake up early, and I watch Scrubs nonstop until about noon. I have completed the first, fifth, and six seasons. I am about half way complete on the second season. I started watching Scrubs while sitting in the hospital. It is slightly odd that I picked up a love for a hospital television show, while in the hospital. One would think that I would have had enough, but this couldn't be further from the truth. Well I stayed up quite late last night, and I had to wake up early to ensure that my sister completed her summer reading projects, so I'm heading back to bed for a nap. I hope that I dream of something wonderful.

Conductor's Walk

Conductor's Walk, originally uploaded by bsawford.

Brad really likes this picture, so I uploaded it to my deviantART account, and now I'm just putting it on my blog. I really want to get more into photography, but I have trouble sometimes finding time. Hopefully, the end of the summer will turn out well for my amateur photography career.

Beach Over... Now Post

I just got home from Myrtle Beach with my friend Amanda. It was quite an experience. I really enjoyed myself. After being in the hospital for about two weeks, I needed a break. I went to the beach on the first day without sunscreen. Needless to say, my skin decided to turn a bright shade of pink. After the burning subsided, I went back outside to attempt to gain a tan. In the end, my tan turned out quite well. My legs are still a little bit warm, but they might also be warm, because I have my laptop on my lap. My sister took a "few" pictures while at the beach. So feel free to search through the ones that I am tagged in via Facebook. On a side note, I noticed on Srav's blog the summer DWC blog list. I guess I have to get my act together. With everything going on at home, there hasn't been much time for me to stalk. I'll get through this tough time in my life. On a brighter note, my mother just suggested getting Subway for dinner. I can't wait to get a foot-long Italian BMT with lettuce, tomato, pickles, and lots of Italian dressing. Off to Dinner Land!

Just In Time

I would just like to start out thanking everyone that came to visit me, while I was in the hospital. I understand that not all of my friends lived close enough (aka everyone from Drexel) to come and visit. For those people, thank you for all the text messages and various online response methods. As I write this post, I am laying in my bed at home. I got out yesterday around 5:30pm. I was so excited to be wheeled out of the hospital in a wheelchair. I am feeling much better, and now I have to start packing for vacation. I am heading to Myrtle Beach with my father's side of the family. Since my sister and I fall in an age bracket in between our cousins and second cousins, it gets a bit lonely. The only way to combat this is to either hang out with the youngsters or invite our own friends. I decided to invite my friend Amanda Olar for such a trek with the Sawford Family. I told Amanda that I want to sleep all day, but apparently, she has other plans that include the beach. I would now like to point out that my father and I hate the beach. I have a minor case of OCD, so I don't like the beach. I end up showering about three times a day. With my recent surgery, I will now be taking longer showers, since the right side of my chest is covered in scars and stitches. Even though I might not enjoy the trip, my surgery almost cost my immediate family the entire trip. If I was unable to go on the trip, my family was going to cancel it. I really didn't want to have such a burden due to a fluke in the genetic lottery (7 in 100,000 men have a spontaneous pneumothorax while in their 20's). Well it is time for my first real shower at home. I'm a little excited and a little scared. Thanks again everyone for your kind (and occasionally not so kind ) words of encouragement.

Only Me...

I deeply apologize to everyone that wanted an exciting post from me the last couple of weeks. I was going to post last Friday night after I went to the Carnegie Science Center with a few of my friends. The Science Center is Pittsburgh's version of the Franklin Institute. I just haven't made it home yet to post about the exciting trip. I'll make sure (once I get to my camera) to post all of the pictures that I took, while we were there. Below will a short outline of my week's events.

Please note: All times are approximate

Friday, July 20th
9:30am - Leave my house to pick up friends / Chest begins to hurt while driving
10:50am - Finally pick everyone up / Take Advil just in case I was having a heart attack
11:30am - 3:30pm - Enjoy the Science Center with plenty of chest pain and Canadians
4:30pm - Check-in at doctor's office for chest pain
5:30pm - Get chest x-ray
6:00pm - Check-in to Emergency Room / Find out I have a 20-25% Spontaneous Pneumothorax
8:00pm - Admitted to hospital for overnight stay / Receive mask for continuous intake of oxygen

Saturday, July 21st
6:00am - Daily Chest X-ray
8:00am - Doctors explain Spontaneous Pneumothorax (Note: I had a Primary Spontaneous Pneumothorax)

Sunday, July 22nd
7:00am - Left room for the Operating Room
7:15am - Met anesthesiologist and surgeon
8:00am - Surgery!
9:30am - Left Surgery for a day of recovery in the ICU (Intensive Care Unit)

Monday, July 23rd
4:00am - Finally get to bed after being completely uncomfortable even while heavily medicated
6:00am - Daily Chest X-Ray / Found out I was bleeding out onto the bed from the surgery and movement from 4am
1:00pm - Move to Post-Surgical Floor

Tuesday, July 24th
Daily Chest X-ray / Blood work / Sleep

Wednesday, July 25th
Normal Daily Stuff
5:00pm - Attempt #1 to get out chest tube
5:03pm - Lung completely deflates / Extremely short of breath
5:05pm - Body enters a Near-Vasovagal Syncope
5:30pm - "STAT" Chest X-ray
5:45pm - Insert a new and smaller chest tube
6:00pm - Semi-legit STAT Chest X-ray

Thursday, July 26th
Normal Daily Stuff

Friday, July 27th (Today)
Normal Daily Stuff

So my life has been a bit hectic regarding my hospital visit. The next attempt to remove the new chest tube will be on Sunday. I must get better before next Friday though, because I'm going on vacation to Myrtle Beach, and I'm taking Amanda Olar with me. I would like to thank everyone that has come and visited me so far, since I've been in the hospital. I understand that not everyone could come and visit, and each of your text messages have made my stay here a bit easier. I thank everyone for everything. It truly has made life so much better.

This Is for Stalkerbook not LameSpace

I refuse to get a MySpace, but I just wanted to see what my relationships thoughts were according to this online quiz. It seems to fit me quite perfectly. Feel free to read if you have a few more moments to waste. Let's hope my blog's auto-formatting won't mess up the following table.

The Keys to Your Heart

You are attracted to those who are unbridled, untrammeled, and free. In love, you feel the most alive when things are straight-forward, and you're told that you're loved. You'd like to your lover to think you are optimistic and happy. You would be forced to break up with someone who was emotional, moody, and difficult to please. Your ideal relationship is open. Both of you can talk about everything... no secrets. Your risk of cheating is zero. You care about society and morality. You would never break a commitment. You think of marriage something you've always wanted... though you haven't really thought about it. In this moment, you think of love as commitment. Love only works when both people are totally devoted.

Golf Lessons

Since I'm just sitting on my couch, I thought I'd just continue to blog post. I don't need Srav on my case anymore. I would like to give everyone a little background, before I get into the discussion on golf. In the Western World, each progressing generation strives to better themselves compared to the former. As of now, I'm a middle class American, and like the previous statement, I would like to better myself from my parents' current socio-economical standing. This is partly the reason, I chose engineering. I have a lot of other motivations, but this was just one of the smaller reasons for such a career. My ultimate goal is to become a yuppie. With that said, I have always wanted to take up golf and tennis. Both sports are envied by some and achieved by few. I want to be able to master both sports. Both sports would be used for personal fitness and business purposes. To be able to perform sufficiently well in golf specifically, one may increase the number of business relationships on and off the course. Taking up both sports is more of a business venture on my part. One must always look towards the future. This is just one way that I plan on bettering myself in the future. Stay tuned to see if I reveal any other secrets to my life or gourmet cooking tips.

Birthday & Such

I forgot to update everyone on my trip to the DPhiE formal. I had a really good time, and I hope that is a good enough description for everyone. The only reason I am currently posting is because Srav yelled at me again. Now to the good stuff! Today is my birthday, and I'm twenty. I wrote a note on facebook as of yesterday to thank everyone for saying "Happy Birthday" or some variant. Obviously the note has come with some opposition. I can't believe some people would de-tag themselves just to make me feel bad. Well these "people" need to get over themselves. Actually though, I'm not angry by any means, but I like to try to sound like I'm a mean person. I just can't do it though. Here is one of my commonly used quotes at some sort of gala or event. "It's my party and I'll cry if I want to." Thank god for Lesley Gore! Well my mother just made me breakfast, so it is chow time.

English Project

Recently, I have been working quite hard on my collaborate final English project. The assignment was to teach a play that we read in a unique way. My group decided to make a Tivo-ish script. We recorded different types of genres, and we are just going to let it play, while we talk about the shows. If it turns out well, we are going to do wonderfully on this project. The performance (aka teaching) will practically determine our grade on the project. I mean, of course, we have a paper. The paper should also turn out wonderfully. I spent a little bit of my time last night editing it to its current condition. I hope that it is going to turn out well.
Now onto a happier note! I went with my friend this weekend to Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End. It was amazing. I can't wait for it to come out on video. I actually wouldn't mind going back to see the movie in theaters. After the movie, my friend asked me to go with her to her sorority (semi-)formal. I was so excited. That now totals me at three Greek events, without ever having to be a Greek. The formal is Saturday night, and I might have to match fuchsia. I'm not too sure how that is going to turn out. She still has to decide on a color, so that I can match though. I'll make sure to update everyone on her color selection, most likely after the dinner on Saturday. Finals week is next week, so wish me luck!

Oh So Classy

I just got out of my Biology midterm. I believe that I did quite well this time around. I made quite an effort with studying. I have been taking oodles of notes during lecture, and then I studied the PowerPoint presentations that my professor uses in lecture. I am in such a great mood, since I did so well. Well back to exciting stuff other than bio. This weekend, I went to the DZ (Semi-)Formal. I went with my friend that lives across the hall from me. She was an amazing date. It was my first sorority event. The weekend prior, I went to Center City to go shopping for a matching color shirt and tie. She decided to wear turquoise, but apparently men's dress shirts don't exist in that color and my size. The only place I could find that would make me look nice was Express. The dinner was excellent, and I made quite a few new friends. I never really saw myself hanging around sorority girls, but I guess I was just playing off the stereotype. The actual DZ girls were so much fun, but I also enjoyed myself at the other (semi-)formal this week. I went with one of my other female friends. It was the first annual Tri-Beta Gala. One of the other DWC members is the secretary for the Bio Fraternity. (It is a co-ed fraternity.) It was a wonderful time. My date and I stole a Beta Fish and a bamboo rod. I'll upload pictures later, once I get back to my room and remember to do it. Well I'm off. *Bows and takes hat off to bid adieu*

Freshie Engie

Yesterday my group presented our Freshmen Engineering Design Project. It entailed a conversion of a preexisting squash court in the athletic center to a rock-climbing facility. The group had to access the physics and budgetary aspects of the design while still maintaining a certain level of engineering. At a first glance, the project seemed to be only a business presentation, but after watching our presentation, the engineering aspects were clearly apparent. One of the group members actually created technical drawings for the project by using Inventor. He then converted the drawings into a scaled-down model. His contribution to the team allowed our group to excel to an amazing level. At the conclusion of our presentation, we decided to get a few pictures to commemorate the project and the culmination of freshmen year. Don't try to judge us on the choice in colors and ties. We thought we would make it as terrible looking as possible. If you notice the paper in the photo (most likely now that I stated it, you'll notice it), it was a tally sheet of how many times each member said "um" during the presentation. I successfully only said it once. Our professor doesn't look too excited in the photo, so don't judge him either. I wish I was majoring in civil engineering just to have this man again the future. Enjoy the photos!

Crazy Long Time

I decided to entitle this post after a wonderful little diddy that one of my fellow DWC members uttered to me a few minutes ago. I made her repeat the statement just to make sure that I heard exactly what she had said. Well I am currently sitting on the computer because I'm a bit bored. I hope that people actually read these posts. I always try to post some of the exciting things I do around the city to keep my readers interested. On Friday, I went with a few of my friends to First Friday. First Friday is an event in Old City when all of the art galleries are open to the public. Lots of people swarm the streets in hopes of finding the perfect piece of Philadelphian artwork. I really enjoyed the one photography gallery. Lots of the artwork was abstract. I don't really enjoy abstract art. If I had to choose a favorite art form other than photography, I would choose French Impressionism specifically Monet. In my junior year of high school, the French classes did an Impressionism unit. We learned about quite a few artists around that time period. Here is a quick link to the Wikipedia article on Impressionism. I would highly suggest anyone interested in French artwork to meander on over to the page.