Birth Control Pills

Whenever my period begins I will be going on the pill which will be Loestrin 24 Fe. I have always been on Orthro Tri Cyclen and then OTC lo but for me I feel so much more 'normal' on the pill. Some people feel like they are not normal on the pill but for me it has been completely opposite. I am hoping that this pill agrees with me. They want me on the pill so when they find me a match, hopefully soon, then my cycle will be regulated.

Uterine septum pics.

Here are 2 u/s pictures of uterine septum and of course for privacy I erased my name and the office that I got the u/s done at. The first picture was labled 'fundus' but am not exactly sure about the pictures.

accepted...

Well I have been accepted to be an egg donor and now has to wait for a couple to 'accept' me. I guess my weird uterus isn't coming into play here, or at least yet. Tomorrow I start back up on the pill, which I am LOVING because I very much dislike my periods off of the pill. While off of the pill I have crazy cramps the day my period begins, while on the pill I would have no other symptoms other then blood.

Other good news is that I have been faithfully going to the gym. There is no sense on having a gym membership but not going so now I am getting my moneys worth.

:)

The big news is... my sister is pregnant with twins. Everyone is over the moon excited about that. Now the big question are they 2 girls, 2 boys, or a boy and a girl. Only time will tell that answer.

No news on the egg donation thing yet. I doubt there will be any issues in my bloodwork but will they accept me on my 'uterus problem' even though that would never come into play with the egg donation since they are only going to effect my ovaries.

Starting place...

I started this blog as an extra credit assignment for a school class and has decided to periodically update it. I have no clue who is reading it and am not sure if I will even tell people about it. It may just be a journal of me talking to myself.

Lately, a lot of things have changed. I was going to school for a career in the medical profession, but has changed to become an elementary teacher. Also, I am in a crazy new relationship, haven't been in one of those in a while, but still has no clue how long the relationship will be. Finally, the big news is that I an in the process of egg donation. To even begin the process has taken several months. First, there was a 17 page packet of general info, family history, and why you are doing this. Then, there was a psych exam (yes, it's a proven fact that I am not crazy). Third, there was bloodwork during my period to see the certain levels. Fourth, there was a "lovely' vaginal u/s. From there I found out that I have a weird uterus. There is a septum in the middle and then apparently I also have 2 cervixes. Yeah, who knew that I would have 'uterus problems'. More bloodwork and urine was taken and that is where the process is at now.

Dirty Dancing Reseach paper

Research Paper 3: Film
April 25, 2011

Dirty Dancing: The Movie

Some may believe that the movie Dirty Dancing is just a dancing movie but there are several issues that arise in the movie. Some issues that occurred in the movie are illegal abortion, stealing, falling in love with the wrong person, the differences in being rich and poor, affairs, premarital sex, having sex with multiple partners, growing up, seeing the times changing, the differences between sisters, going against family’s beliefs, and jealousy. The movie tells the story of Frances “Baby” Houseman (Jennifer Grey) growing up and falling in love (Gottlieb, & Ardolino, 1987). The iconic film, Dirty Dancing, from 1987 is continuing to be popular even twenty-four years later.

“Baby” begins as a very naïve teenager that is a daddy’s little girl. Her sister, Lisa is a very much goody-goody, wears more normal clothing for her age, and is into boys more than Baby. Johnny Castle is that bad boy dance partner that in the end Baby falls in love with. Penny is Johnny’s dance partner that has a botched illegal abortion that Baby’s father unknowingly paid for and then helped her because he is a doctor. Robbie was the father of Penny’s baby but he wanted nothing to do with her. Lisa also liked Robbie, and was going to have sex with him, but he was with another person at the time. Dr. Jake Houseman was Baby and Lisa’s father that wanted the best for his daughters and did not enjoy seeing Baby growing up. The Schumachers were a little old couple that seemed the sweetest but were actually wanted in a few states and had made a profit from stealing peoples’ wallets at the surrounding hotels (Gottlieb, & Ardolino, 1987).

The story begins as the Houseman family arrives at a Castkill’s resort called Kellermans in the summer of 1963. While exploring the property she found where the entertainment staff has their parties and joined them. She is surprised at their risqué dancing because it is nowhere near the proper dancing that she was exposed to prior. She finds out that Penny wanted to have an abortion and asks her father for the $250 to fund the illegal abortion. Baby then has to learn Penny’s dance moves to cover for her during Penny and Johnny’s dance job at a nearby hotel. Unfortunately, the abortion was not a good one because the so called doctor had a folding table, dirty knife, and no drugs. When Baby realizes how sick Penny is, she gets her father so that he can rectify the botched abortion. When Penny’s father asks who is responsible for Penny’s pregnancy, Johnny says he is even though Robbie is really the one responsible (Gottlieb, & Ardolino, 1987). Instead of Baby following her father’s instructions, she goes to Johnny’s room to apologize and they consummate their relationship. Penny realizes Johnny and Baby’s relationship and tells him to stop it because it is dangerous for the staff and guests to have sexual relationships. Johnny was fired because a jealous woman blamed him for stealing her husband’s wallet (W, &C, n.d.). His alibi was that he was alone in his room reading. Baby tells the boss that really she was with him, and Johnny is then fired for that reason. Baby is sad that she let down her family, and then he was still fired. Johnny on the other hand explains to her that nobody has ever done anything like that for him. Johnny leaves the resort but then returns for the iconic scene where he and Baby dance together to the song (I’ve Had) the Time of my Life. Dr. Houseman begins to give Robbie money for medical school, where he learns that Robbie was responsible for Penny’s situation. Dr. Houseman apologizes to Johnny for everything and tells Baby that she looked wonderful (Gottlieb, & Ardolino, 1987).

The last scene of the movie is definitely an iconic one where various people and TV shows have tried to recreate it. The last scene to the song (I’ve Had) the Time of my Life was recreated in a wedding dance and has generated more than 1.2 million views. The song (I’ve Had) the Time of my Life has become a popular first wedding dance choice and some even include the signature lift (Wong, Lynch, Stoynoff, & Sundel, 2007). One quote from the movie that almost did not make it in to the movie was “Nobody puts Baby in the corner.” That quote occurred when Johnny came back to the resort, found Baby sitting at the table with her parents, and took her to the stage where they did their beautiful dance. A less known quote but was a funny one was “I carried a watermelon.” In the beginning of the movie while exploring the resort grounds she finds an entertainment worker, which is Johnny’s cousin, carrying three watermelons, was sworn to secrecy, and enters the party. When Johnny asks his cousin why is she here, she just says “I carried a watermelon” (Gottlieb, & Ardolino, 1987).

Most of the actors did not think that this little summer movie would become such an iconic movie, even more than twenty years later. The movie’s budget was very small at $5 million. It has since grossed more than $170 million. The budget was so small that the extras were not provided a hot meal, but maybe at times peanut butter crackers. Jennifer Grey who played Frances “Baby” Houseman did not have that many big time roles because she was in a bad car accident and also had a nose job that made her look unrecognizable. On the other hand, Patrick Swayze who played Johnny Castle had a very successful career afterwards until his death to Pancreatic Cancer. The known star and who continued to be well known was Jerry Orbach who played Dr. Jake Houseman unfortunately also died to cancer. He became well known on Law and Order. Although the setting of the movie took place in the Catskills in New York, the filming was actually done in Virginia and North Carolina. That decision was based on filming in New York was too expensive (Wong, Lynch, Stoynoff, & Sundel, 2007).

In conclusion, Dirty Dancing is not a movie just about dancing but goes much deeper than that. It tells the story of how Baby grows up, does not follow her father’s instructions, and falls in love with the boy Johnny. A botched illegal abortion was also performed in the movie with it being unknowingly paid for by Baby’s father. In the end, Baby’s father was able to get all of the information and became happy for Baby falling in love, even though it was hard to see her grow up. The last scene of the movie continues to be an iconic scene with people even attempting to recreate it.


Works Cited
Gottlieb, L (Producer), & Ardolino, E (Director). (1987). Dirty dancing [Motion Picture]. USA: Lionsgate.
W, A, & C, L. (n.d.). Dirty dancing (1987) plot summary. Retrieved from http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0092890/plotsummary
Wong, M., Lynch, J., Stoynoff, N., & Sundel, J. (2007). Dirty dancing. People, 67(21), 110. Retrieved from EBSCOhost.

The holocaust research paper

Research Paper 2: Major Event
March 21, 2011

The Inhumane Holocaust

One of the most devastating events in world history was the Holocaust. To this day, some do not even believe that the Holocaust occurred but how do they explain the 11 million people that were brutally murdered? More than likely, there will not be an event in world history that comes close to the Holocaust.

To understand the Holocaust one must understand a few events that occurred. World War I devastated Europe, especially Germany. 8.5 million men died on battlegrounds during World War I, which lasted from 1914-1918. Many of the European Jews lived in the Russian Pale of Settlement in Eastern Poland, which is where the armies fought and struggled a lot here. In 1915 the Tsarist command actually blamed the Jews for the defeat and even expelled them from certain border areas. World War I was one of the first times that there was such a large mass killing by civilized countries. In 1933 there were 9.4 million Jews living in Europe. More than 78% lived in Poland, the USSR, Rumania, and Hungary. In the western industrialized countries the Jews were economically integrated with jobs that were merchants, industrialists, craftsmen, and professionals. On the other hand, in the east where they were less industrialized they were not able to become economically integrated. Although in the Poland population Jews were only 10%, they paid 40% of the taxes. In May 1919 a peace treaty was presented to Germany by the Allies and it was later signed the next month. It was an ultimatum which stated that Germany was solely responsible for the war, the army would be limited to 100,000 men, the army to 15,000, unification with Austria would not be allowed, they would pay reparations at an unknown amount, and will lose all overseas colonies in both the East and the West (Bauer, 2001).

October 1919 Adolf Hitler began speaking to Drexler DAP where he eventually became a leader of the small group. The group name eventually was changed to National Socialist German Worker’s Party. They had various beliefs including Jews were the major source of Germany’s problems, and all recent Jewish immigrants of Germany should return to the countries that they had came from. January 1933 the Nazis came to power in Germany with Hitler as the chancellor. April 1, 1933 it was ordered to have an economic boycott with the Jews (Bauer, 2001).
In the late 1930s ghettoes were created, which was mainly where all the Jews went, so that they were removed from society, even more than they had been. The ghettoes were terrible living conditions- old homes made of wood, with no toilets or running water or sewage. March 5, 1940 all Jews in Poland were ordered to move to the ghettoes. They were also overcrowded, had a lack of food, lack of sanitation which created typhus epidemic. The first internment camp was created in March 1933 at Dachau. In 1938 the use of the camps increased which basically would work people until they died or were killed sadistically. There were three types of camps: transition camps, labor camps, and concentration camps. They also believed that chronically ill people, habitual criminals, and mental patients had no right to live (Bauer, 2001).

Auschwitz was created in 1942 as a death camp for Jews. October 1942 it was ordered that all Jews from all other camps should be concentrated here. In 1944 it is estimated that 1 million Jews were killed by the gas chambers. At the Auschwitz camp complex there were five gas chambers. Normally, they were deceived in thinking that they were going to the showers, but were actually getting gassed, which would lead to their deaths. Afterwards, the bodies would be burned in a crematorium. At Auschwitz there were two crematoria which would burn 2,000 bodies in less than 24 hours. Before burning the bodies they would extract the gold from teeth, remove rings, remove women’s hair to be used for mattresses and submarines, and the clothing from them that was removed would be distributed in Germany. The inmates at the camps were also used for medical experiments such as sterilization of inmates, twin and dwarf ones, the effects on altitude on pilots, injected with viruses, and many other brutal experiments. In 1941 there were 18,000 prisoners but by 1945 there were 714,211 prisoners. 70 to 80% of Auschwitz inmates were Jews (Bauer, 2001).

Many of the countries stood by and let the Holocaust occur. Although they did not do anything necessarily bad they did try to stop the Holocaust either. Towards the end of the war SS guards transported inmates by trains or “death marches.” They did this on hopes that the Allies would not be able to free the large amounts of prisoners. March 7, 1945 the German armed forces unconditionally surrendered to the Allies. Many survivors would be placed in displaced persons camps. 700,000 Jews emigrated to Israel between the years 1948 and 1951. In 1957 the last displaced persons camp was closed (USHMM, 2011).

The Holocaust was the worst event in world history. Many people when they think about the Holocaust they say that 6 million Jews died but 5 million “forgotten” people died as well. Jehovah Witnesses, Gypsies, priests and pastors, homosexuals, disabled, black children, and those in inter-racial marriages were also brutally murdered. In total the rough estimate of those murdered is 11 million. Those people did not have an easy death but were humiliated, removed from their homes, tortured, starved, ordered to do hard labor, and various other things just because they were not of the Aryan race- “blond hair, blue eyes” (Pencak Schwartz, 2002).

References
Arad, Y. (1990). The pictorial history of the holocaust. New York: Macmillan Publishing Company.
Bauer, Y. (2001). A history of the holocaust revised edition. Danbury: Franklin Watts.
Pencak Schwartz, T. (2002). Five million forgotten- holocaust's non-jewish victims. Retrieved from http://www.holocaustforgotten.com/fivmil.htm
United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. “The Holocaust.” Holocaust Encyclopedia. http://www.ushmm.org/wlc/en/?ModuleId=10005143. Accessed on March 18, 2011.