Tomorrow, the 1st of September, I'm going back to a Clinical Laboratory (hospital setting) to update myself on the latest trends in the Medical Lab world. Well, it's been a while. But, then, it wasn't so long ago that I did update my skills in an automated hospital lab. It's just that, right now, I'm feeling both nervous and excited. Nervous because except for the Chief Medical Technologist (who was a former classmate in college) I hardly know anyone else there. Add to that the fact that I'll be working with MTs younger than me Except for the Chief Med Tech But, I am also excited because of what this training could mean for me. I'm hoping it could open doors for me. At least, the door that leads to what my heart desires the most.

For sure, I'll be posting entries now and then. It might not come as a surprise anymore if I'll mostly be talking about Lab work in the coming days. I can only hope you won't mind hearing about Lab stuff from me, ha ha ha.

Yes, this means I'm wearing a Lab coat again. Oooops, nowadays, even Medical Technologists are asked to wear Scrub suits. So, it's the Scrubs for me, then.

Wish me luck, guys! See yah!!!

The Page Rank icon on my blog has left me puzzled for the last couple of days and nearly sent me into panic because not only has it turned grey but it also has a question mark symbol? Have I lost my Page Rank? My goodness. Using a few Page Rank Checker tools, I was able to breathe a sigh of relief to see that I still have my Page Rank, after all. Taking time to investigate further, I went over to prchecker.info and read more about Page Rank and problems with it. Following the advice given from that site, I checked if my blog site would appear using Google Search because that's one way of knowing if your site hasn't been banned by Google. Thankfully, my blog site still does appear using the Google Search engine. Hopefully, things will be back to normal with my PR icon in a few days according to the information I read from prchecker.info. Oh, well, I can only hope. It sure would be nice to see my PR icon back to normal.

ARRRGGGGHHH.....

To my friends in the Medical Laboratory Profession (especially those based in the Philippines):

Ms. Emie Romero, MIM, MBA, MT(ASCP), CLS (NCA), Senior Consultant of International Networking and Research Consultants (INRC/Arizona, USA) will be coming to the Manila on September 13, 2008 (Saturday) to meet Medical Technologists interested in knowing more about the status of MT careers in the USA.

The last I heard was that the meeting place will be at the lobby of the Hyatt Hotel in Malate. I will contact Ms. Romero to find out if there haven't been any changes made as to the date and meeting place.

Those interested to get in touch with Ms. Emie Romero may send me an email: csi_pinay@yahoo.com or alternatively at: clairesien1019@yahoo.com

I'm taking it easy and having as much fun as I can right now because come September, I'll get even busier with work at the clinic during the day and then Hospital Laboratory training during the evenings. I know I'll be doing those 3 PM to 11 PM shifts along with the graveyard shifts (11 PM to 7 AM) again and while it's been a long while since I've had such duties, I think I'll be able to adjust well. Why not? I've had 24-hour duties during my internship and fared well. There was even a time when I was having 3 straight 24-hour duties per week (with 4 days OFF, ha ha ha) for a month-and-a half as a Med Tech Reliever. So, there's no reason why I can't deal with graveyard shifts or 3 to 11 shifts.

So, working at the clinic during the day and training in the evenings for a month will only feel like having 24-hour duties once again. The question is, will there be room enough for sleep? Ha ha ha. I'll catch sleep when I can and WHERE I can (at the clinic and I can only hope my boss won't scream "BLOODY MURDER!" Ha ha ha).

So, if you happen to bump onto a semi-sleepwalker or zombie in a Lab Coat, don't be scared. It's just me. Ha ha ha.

I was nervous. I simply tried so hard to appear calm, but deep within, I was really a quivering mass of nerves as I made my way to the Apo View Hotel yesterday at 7:30 AM. The Orientation/Job Fair was scheduled to begin at 8 AM, but I made sure to arrive ahead of time. I always make a habit of arriving ahead of time (at least 30 minutes to an hour before an appointment/event) sort of to give myself time to prepare for "the battle ahead", ha ha ha.

It was actually a Job Fair for nurses, PTs, OTs, and teachers (new applicants) but I was invited to come over so I could personally talk to the US-based agency rep who had started to handle my application since May of this year. So, I made my way to the registration table and presented myself to Erl who asked me to wait a moment while she talked to Ms. Helen, the lady rep. As I watched Erl walk into the Waling-Waling function room of the Apo View Hotel, I could feel my heart beating so fast and reminded myself to calm down because I could do it.

Erl came out after a couple of minutes or so. "Claire, this way please."

Oh no. This is it, I thought nervously as she ushered me to the room. I thought I was simply going to be asked to join the orientation for nurses for the morning session so I nearly went into panic mode when Erl all but announced nonchalantly, "You're going straight to interview, Claire."

W-what? I thought at the back of my mind. I probably would have felt panicky and I wanted to, ha ha ha. Except that there simply was no time for letting panic settle in because everything happened so fast and I just found myself in the private interview area (separated from the rest of the room by a divider). When I saw the pretty and distinguished looking lady looking up as I walked in, I swallowed nervously. I'm going to get grilled. I am soooo going to get grilled, I thought over and over.

The pretty lady smiled and suddenly said, "Why, hello, Claire. How have you been?"

She knew me. Then I found out why when I was finally seated in front of her and she explained that she got hold of my credentials last May and that my papers were already in a Boston hospital's HR office. All we have to do is wait for the HR to review my credentials and then finally come up with a decision. I knew that because the owner of the Davao agency I enlisted with actually called me from Maryland last May and said she would negotiate for the terms of payments on my behalf. But, then, it still felt great to have heard the news personally from Ms. Helen, the distinguished lady from the Maryland, USA-based agency.

What I anticipated to be a grilling session of an interview actually turned out to be a friendly chat. Ms. Helen was such a very nice person who seemed to have the ability to make people feel comfortable with her. Ms. Congeniality, if you ask me. If you've ever experienced meeting someone and just feeling very comfortable with that someone, then you might know what I am talking about.

I only struggled with one thing. I felt like Sandra Bullock felt the first time she was made to wear heels in the movie Ms. Congeniality, LOL. I actually own a few pairs of heeled shoes/sandals. It's just that I mostly prefer the comfort of flats and so, I save the heels for important occasions only.

All's well that ends well, as they say. I just hope things eventually go well with the Boston thing. For my sake

The recipients (below) of the Brillante Weblog are welcomed to put the Logo on their personal blogs and have the honor of passing this award to seven other bloggers. Here are the rules for passing on the award:

I nominate: Marites, race, Angie, benchiegrace, Joseph - Director, Claire, and vicy.

After lunch yesterday, I thought of giving my good friend, Marites, a call and even though she was kinda busy, she still gamely answered all the things I asked her about blogging. In the course of our conversation, she told me she already got ranked by Google (PR4) and that she was surprised when she found out about it last Sunday. I congratulated her, of course, and at the same time wondered at the back of my mind IF and WHEN my blog would get ranked. With the way I haven't been posting regularly due to a hectic schedule of daily tasks I've been following lately, I told myself that it might take an eternity for me to get a Page Rank, ha ha ha.

I got the shock of my life, however, when Marites called me late in the afternoon yesterday. I wondered if she forgot to tell me something about the Blog Opps we'd been talking about earlier that same day.

 "Hey, Claire! Guess what? You already have a Page Rank, too. It's PR 3!" It turned out that she checked and found out I was already given a rank.

Please, God, don't let her be kidding, I thought. "Really? You're not kidding, are you?"

"No," Marites laughed and added, "Go check for yourself."

I did and it's just as she told me -- It's PR 3.

Way to go!!!!