Tragic News

The woman who runs our kickball league was killed last night walking home at 230am. She was a kind, caring person who organized all the kickball events and events for local charities. Just this last weekend she organized a charity event that raised over 2,000 dollars. I remember saying goodbye to her last night when leaving our after kickball hangout, MacDintons. She had a great smile and I really wish I'd gotten to know her better.

Here's the news report:


By CHRIS CHMURA
cchmura@tbo.com
TAMPA - Police officers are scrutinizing Nissan Maximas and Altimas
today, following an early morning hit-and-run that killed a pedestrian.
The victim’s acquaintances, meanwhile, are publicly mourning their
friend’s senseless death.

Christine Hodill, 28, of Tampa, was struck around 2:30 a.m. at West
Cleveland Street and East Moody Avenue, one block south of Kennedy
Boulevard.

Hodill may have been trying to cross Cleveland Street, officers said.
Watch News Channel 8 Video

A police statement says the vehicle failed to stop, struck Hodill, and
then fled the scene. Hodill died at the scene.

The Nissan was dark in color, possibly green or black, according to
investigators. “It had a spoiler, rear view mirror missing and front end
damage,” said police spokesperson Lisa Parashis.
Anyone who spots such a vehicle is urged to call the Tampa Police
Department or 911.

Hodill’s friends are publicly expressing their feelings in comments that
have been posted online.

“Christine was a good friend. Always in a good mood, fun to be around,”
wrote Matt Johnston on TBO.com. Johnson said Hodill was passionate about
kickball and was a local representative for the World Adult Kickball
Association.

“We will miss you in the kickball community,” he said.

http://www.myspace.com/christinewtf

A post by Brian Hummel reads, “Christine I’ve cherished the moments
we’ve had together and I know God is with you, you will be forever missed!”

Schedule Shift

In case I haven't mentioned it, my practice has practically exploded since the start of the new year. Granted, I still don't own it.. but I'm pretty proud of how we're doing. I'd like to take some credit for how much it's grown in the fourteen months I've been working here. My store was number ONE in the entire region last week !! Normally, since we're the newest, we're in the bottom two or three. Number one.. out of about 16 stores.

The part-time doc at Dr W's other store in St Pete quit this month. She gave her month notice and she's opening her own private practice.. cold. That take cajones. Her mom is going the run the front desk for her and one of her relatives is going to be the optician. I'm not sure exactly where her new location is, but I wish her the best. So, because March starts her new office... we have no new doctor in St Pete. That leaves exactly two of us to staff two offices that are open seven days a week. Can you see where I'm going here ? I thought you could.

I'll be working pretty much six days a week until we can find another doctor for St Pete. We're scrambling, but doctors are very hard to come by in this part of Florida. Dr W got someone from PRN to work one day a week for him in St Pete so he can have at least one day a week off. By this time of the year, everyone who's passed Florida boards has work. Not many people are looking. So, if anyone out there knows anyone looking for part to full time work in the St Pete area (who also holds a Florida OD license).. PLEASE leave me a message! My schedule will thank you -- and so will my husband.

Being an adult sucks sometimes....

My car just broke down. It made this weird chug a chug-a noise, wouldn't go over 10 mph, the service engine light came on, and I barely made it back to my parking space. Thank god I was at home. But, I was on my way to a lovely salmon, asparagus, and lots of wine dinner with a girlfriend. And now I'm stuck at home.

AAA can't tow my car until tomorrow morning because of our parking garage. So, they're towing my car to Saturn tomorrow morning. I'm hoping Saturn can find me a rental car. I had my boss take me to the airport so I can get a rental. The rental car companies pretty much laughed at me-- apparently between the Daytona 500 and the three day weekend they're out of rental cars. So, now I'm stuck at the airport. I had to shell out more money to get back home. (But, thank god for taxis) Now, I have to hope Saturn can perform a small miracle. They told me on the phone they'll take care of me. They might make shitty cars, but they DO have great customer service. Right now, I'd take a car that runs. I think it psychically knows that I just finished paying it off.

On an up note. I got a new laptop Sunday. Gateway. So far, I really like it. 2G of RAM and 160G hard drive. ON sale, rebate, plus a discount for a Circuit City grand opening. YAY! It's the first Gateway I've ever had, but it had really good reviews. So, now i have to pay off the computer AND the car. *sigh*

Sometimes being an adult really sucks

Kickball game three

We suck. We played a really REALLY good team last night. They were so serious and had almost 30 players on their team. We barely had enough players to field a team. But, we're there to have fun. Had we not blown the first inning it would have been a whole different story. We had three straight 3-up 3-out innings, so things went by SO FAST!

In the end... we lost 6-2. But, LOOK ... PICTURES!! And, yes, my socks do rule!

On being a complete nerd....

I just read in a magazine of mine about MIT Open Courses. Basically, you can go through the MIT course catalog and audit MIT classes online for free. You can't get credit towards a degree or anything.. but, if you're just someone who loves to learn new stuff you can TOTALLY geek out here. MIT OpenCourse Ware

Those linguistics classes I always wanted to take at UT: there.
Intro to Japanese: there.
Totally cool neuro behavioral science: there.

My printer's going to hate me.

And, back to dead

My laptop is officially toast. I took it into CompUSA to have them run a diagnostic on it. I couldn't tell whether the problem was with my AC adaptor, or the connection of the power to the mother board. After much tinkering, a new AC adaptor, and a still ongoing problem later.. it's my motherboard.

Apparently it costs just as much to fix the motherboard as it would for a new computer. So, new computer it'll probably be. Although, I'm in no rush. I still have G's computer when he's not home to use so I'll get to it eventually. Just add it to the pile of things I need to buy.

Kickball and hash update

Well, kids, we lost our second kickball game. It was a sad affair. We lost by only one run to a team that didn't read the league rules. Arguing with the refs was only going to get us kicked out of the league so we dropped it. But, we did bring up the point to the girl who runs the league.. if you're going to have people from other teams ref our games PLEASE make sure the people have READ THE LEAGUE RULES! *sigh* It's pretty bad when our team has to try to explain the league rules to.the.refs! But I digress.

We still have 10 more games this season so all hope is not lost.

Last night was my friend Marquise's last Jolly Roger H3 hash before she leaves for the Army. I'm going to miss her SO much ! She leaves for basic combat training on the 15th and then heads to OCS. A hash prayer was said in her honor, she was given many a down-down, and she has laid her final JRH3 trail. *sniff* We'll definitely be living it up in her honor on Saturday at our annual Red Dress Run. And trust me.. there will be pictures of that.

Marquise: You are a gem of a woman. I will miss you horribly. You have a strength of character I aspire to. And, you know how to rock the stripper shoes! ;) Love ya.

Texas does something right...

I was going to post a long bloggity-blog about Texas, HPV, and cervical cancer. But, Suz beat me to it. She also says it better/snarkier than I ever could.