This Epi(lepti)c Life

Welcome to Episode 2! AKA the one where  Clarissa gets a pie thrown in her face. Humble pie, that is.  Every October, K-State Research & Extension holds its Annual Conference on campus in Manhattan. It's a typical conference, with an  opening ceremony, breakout sessions for a couple days and then concludes with an awards luncheon. Sometimes the conferences themselves aren't all that exciting, but it's always good to catch up with other extension pals from across the state plus the agent associations have meetings and social nights which are always fun. This was just a couple months after my first seizure so I was unable to drive myself up there, which wasn't a huge deal since there's a bunch of people going to Manhattan anyway. I was rooming with Beth Ireland who was in Greenwood County at the time so we made arrangements to ride together as well. I had reached this point in my adult life where I didn't really have any friends who still lived in Manhatta...

I'd like to open today's post with a quick story from my college days. The date was August 21, 2011. I only remember this because it was the day my second niece Addison was born and I'd gotten a text about her arrival early that morning and I was so excited I couldn't fall back asleep. For those of you that don't know, I went to Kansas State University and was an ambassador for the College of Human Ecology my sophomore through senior years there. It was a really fun experience where I could pretend to be an extrovert, and nerd out about all the cool things that Human Ecology had to offer, before going back into my introvert bubble. Anyway, this was on a Sunday I believe- shortly before or right around the time classes were going to start for the fall. We ambassadors were headed out to the low ropes course at K-State for some team-building activities on our retreat. I was the group's president for that year so I came ready to lead! conquer! win all the chal...

First off- lessons learned! Translation: Let's try and make something positive out of this experience- AKA- This is also my job- AKA PLAN FOR EMERGENCIES BETTER, CLARISSA. And other people. But primarily me, since I'm the Family & Consumer Sciences Agent. Ok, back on track now. This post is a "Making lemonade out of lemons" post. Did you read "Remix week"? If not, you may want to hit pause and catch up or just be a semi-confused rebel and continue reading anyway. Your choice. So yeah, Lindsay Payer and the others at the meeting were kiiiinda freaking out when they couldn't contact my family, answer questions about my medical history, tell the EMT's what prescriptions I was taking, et cetera. Hmm, kind of important information for EMT's to know. "Can I give penicillin?" "Can I wear latex gloves?" "The patient may be allergic... better not." If I had needed CPR but had a DNR order, they would have been going a...