i pledge allegiance to rock

One of my faaaavorite things at the clinic-- in addition to having my own patients and getting to make my own treatment decisions-- is getting paged. Laugh all you want, but it's pretty cool hearing my name over the loudspeaker, which happens whenever one of my patients arrives, the front desk needs to consult me about scheduling, or I have a phone call. ORS freely gives out its phone number, so these past few days I've gotten calls from my patients needing reminders about how to do their home exercise program, wondering if their soreness after joint mobs is normal, or just to let me know that they're feeling great after therapy (I got one of those calls this afternoon and it made my day). I love much how patient-therapist communication is emphasized at ORS, even once the patients leave the clinic. 

This week, while David and Woody are on vacation, I'm with Mark, a PT with 25 years of experience who can be described as an exercise-aholic and a big hockey player/fan who isn't afraid of a good time. [We get along quite well.]  I'm lucky to be able to learn from three very different, but all very good sports and orthopedic PTs who earnestly take the time to teach me what they know--I've learned more than I could have hoped for in the few short weeks I've been in Illinois.

Outside of the clinic, Thursdays are the new Fridays. Last week, I ventured to Granite City by myself, and this afternoon, I headed to Rockford's 10th annual On the Waterfront festival- a combination of a county fair, a concert series and a film festival. The Rock Allegiance Tour made a stop in Rockford tonight, and I saw Crossfade, Red, P.O.D. and Puddle of Mudd perform. For those Minnesooootans, it's a concert 93X would host.  This place was huge, though, and I didn't know where I was going, but my cluelessness paid off. I walked into the reserved seating/up front section and no one asked to see my ticket, but they gave me a VIP wristband anyways. In other words, I was about 40 feet from the stage. Well worth the meager $15 I paid for a general admission ticket to see 7 bands!

I have to admit, I have a soft spot for hard rock. It was crazy hot, but nice to be outside and out of the house. Apparently I missed the memo that cigarettes and >1 tattoo were required for entrance (and yes, I was the only one at the entire concert wearing pink). But I had a pretty awesome time rocking out. Red was great, but Puddle of Mudd was even better. It's not very often that you can sing the lyrics to Puddle of Mudd's "She Hates Me" at the top of your lungs in public. For the sake of my safety and well-being, I left before the headliners, Papa Roach and Buckcherry, played because Mark didn't think (and I agree) that it would have been a very good idea to stay out much past dark in this city and around this crowd. 

One of my favorites from the night: Puddle of Mudd's "Blurry"

my VIP wristband told me that if I was words on a page, I'd be what they call FINE PRINT.

Tomorrow- because I'm working Mark's hours- I'm done at 10:30 (ok, yes, I've seriously lucked out with my hours so far). So, I decided I'm going to hit the road and head home! Wine and movie night on Friday with Kristy, dinner and drinks with Tay on Saturday, and State Fair on Sunday! And I promise to do my best to leave this stifling heat wave behind in IL... See you soon, MN!

P.S. Happy 25th birthday to the first of the 6 of us to hit the quarter century mark. Love ya Abs!

(remember this night at the sleg? one of my fav STO memories:)