cornerofmadness

I had to get up ungodly early on a Saturday to be one of the judges in the Ohio Academy of Science Science fair. This is my university's first time hosting this and frankly I think we knocked it out of the part (almost entirely because of our biochemist's work on this project). We don't know entirely why Shawnee State gave it up (one of our closest competitors) but to me, this is great for our school and getting exposure. Everyone stepped it up (including our English department who showed videos for the parents while their kids were presenting their research).

To my shock there were kids as young as 5th graders in this. Man, we just didn't DO things like this back in my day. What a shame. From here they will move on to state competition. Many won awards and scholarships. I was paired with one of my very best and brightest students (who's been at the college since she was 14. I love her). Right off the bat things went sideways. I put my clip board down in the bathroom and some other judge walked off with it. Finally found it.

My student ally (who has done way more of these than I) went after these kids like a bull dog, a very polite one, but she's way tougher than me! We all had 3 to rate and critique. I had one botany and two eye physiology ones. The second one (who was right next to a 5th grader who made a case study of her own performances using her prosthetic leg) really knew her stuff. She was busy impressing the hell out of us. Suddenly, while my student and I were studying her graphic, she took two steps back and was on the floor. At first we thought she had stumbled over her too high heels. After a second I'm like well fuck, she's fainted. I get on the floor and gather her up. She wakes up fast and I can see my student (plus two male students of mine, all of whom want to go to med school go pale faced but want to help). I send them for water and juice, figuring a) it's hot and the poor nervous girl might have overheated b) she says she ate but it could be hypoglycemia.

I stay with her even though she says she's fine because I see she is not. She goes out of me again and I catch her before she falls. I get one of the other students to bring a chair but at this point she's twitching and the nursing instructor sees us as well. Neither of us can revive her. Her eyes aren't rolling under the lids so in spite of some muscle twitching I don't think she's having a seizure but it is possible. Her pulse is so thin and thready I have my student call for an ambulance. In fact we LOSE her radial pulse and have to find it in her neck. her hands are blue, her lips are grey and we can not get this girl back.

Thankfully someone found her teacher and she wakes up when she hears the familiar voice. By the time her parents are located she's thankfully not looking blue/grey any more and is talking (though her mom of course is so freaked out the girl nearly passes out again from the emotion). I tell their dad they should still take her to the hospital ( by now the cops and one of the athletic trainers are there too) because she did strike her head that first time. Later her dad hunts me down to talk to the hospital because I'm the one who witnessed the full episode. She was more alert when she was there and seems to be okay. I guess if you're going to have a major syncopal event, have it in front of a doctor and a nurse. My student said wow I'm not sure medicine IS right for me. That was too scary. My response was I'm glad you three were here and saw this because this is what it is like and this is mild, really. You need to honestly think about this stuff and make the best choice for you.

Thankfully the rest of the day was less traumatic though one student sat on the table and collapsed it and we were running majorly behind for who knows what reasons. Lunch almost very arrived and I think they made serious errors in it. they had exactly 2 vegetarian dishes instead of the half dozen ordered. There were twice as many chicken and turkey wraps as there were judges. I ended up eating chicken because while I prefer the veggies sandwiches I WILL eat meat. It was horrible full of cartilage.

But over all, it was a successful day.

Then I went to L's play tonight. It was her first time directing and she had a small role and my chemist friend TH had several roles. It was a 1930s detective radio drama and it was funny. I thought they all did a good job. The woman playing Lola, this was her first time on stage and she was really good. The fellow playing the lead is someone I know peripherally thru L. He's in every play mostly because he's one of the few men who try out, not because he's good. He was actually rather bad in this because he could read the script (because it was there as radio dramas would have the script) and he read so monotone. Still, it was probably one of the more fun plays I've seen them put on.

I didn't get what I waned for dinner either. I knew the Italian joint would be busy but it was more than an hour wait. I went to KFC to try that Carolina Gold...even more chicken strips full of cartilage.

And hey ALL my stories are on sale for 30% for at least a few more hours at Dreamspinner. Find it here.

Also for a very limited time Abney Park's e-albums are only 2$ I need to buy some here.

I managed four hours sleep last night. Whee.