Friday, February 29, 2008

Leap

So tonight we're going to a birthday party for our dear friend Lil' Jeffy, whose birthday is Leap Year Day. Therefore he has a "real" birthday only once every four years, making him eight birthdays old. Do the math and you might surmise that he is in fact 32. I don't really remember him turning 30, so this came as a shock to me.

I dearly love his parents though I have not been able to look his mom in the eye since he told me that story about the time he came home unexpectedly early, bounded up the stairs, and found ... well, you just shouldn't do that sort of thing in the den, is all I'm sayin'.

Went in to school this morning to take a module test and also to finish up a couple of assignments. Got it all done and with a 100 on the module test, even. Yay me!

A fellow student whom I met at that dinner thingy a while back informed me today that the general consensus among students in her term (she is one term ahead of me) is that whether you put in a ton of work on your patient presentation, or not so much, you'll still get a B on it. So I'm kinda glad I just-over-half-assed it. No sense spending hours and hours agonizing over it if I'm still just gonna get a B.

One word is enough

1. Where is your cell phone? counter
2. Your toe nails? adequate
3. Your hair? moppy
4. Your mother? superlative
5. Your father? clueless
6. Your favorite thing? daughter
7. Your dream last night? forgotten
8. Your favorite drink? coke
9. Your dream/goal? Nurse
10. The room you're in? diningroom
11. Your fear? disaster
12. Where do you want to be in 6 years? prosperous
13. Where were you last night? home
14. What you're not? mature
15. Muffins? blueberry
16. One of your wish list items? housekeeper
17. Where you grew up? Oregon
18. The last thing you did? exam
19. What are you wearing? splint
20. Your TV? dvd
21. Your pets? numerous
22. Your computer? darling
23. Your life? chaotic
24. Your mood? fatigued
26. Your car? zoomzoomzoom
27. Something you're not wearing? earrings
28. Favorite Store? book
29. Your summer? active
30. Your favorite color? blue
31. When is the last time you laughed? today
32. Last time you cried? Tuesday
33. Who will/would re-post this? anyone :)

Tuesday, February 26, 2008

Finger of Doom

So today I took off my splint for a while, to give The Finger of Doom (TFoD) some air time. The snotty physician's assistant who saw me at the fracture clinic told me I should start doing some occasional easy bending type motions right about now, but I think he should just f*ck straight off, is what I think. Stupid thing is STILL bruised and very stiff, and bending it still hurts. So yeah. I don't think so.

Module test today, score 95. Yay me!

Also met with advisor. Hyperbole University evidently has not only an RN-to-Bachelor's degree program, but also an RN-straight-to-Master's degree for people such as myself, who have for example an all but useless BA in Nothingness Studies from Hunormous State University. So, my next step is to investigate that a bit on the website and then contact yet another advisor, this time a HU one and not the Euphemism College one I saw today. I could start knocking out the prereq's this summer. I believe I may have to take some statistics classes, which should not be a problem owing to my gigantic cranial capacity. Ha, ha, ha. Actually I did take some statistics years ago and I found that if you had a basic grasp of algebra, you could plug-n-chug your way through it without too much trouble. So, yay! Summer classes.....

Thursday, February 21, 2008

What sucks more than clinicals?

Clinicals with a gnarly head cold, when you went to bed miserable at 10:30pm and woke up even more miserable with a wicked bad headache at 2am and never did get back to sleep. That's what sucks more than clinicals, which really only suck because of the whole getting up at 4am thing. Seriously, I took some ibuprofen but by the time my head stopped hurting, it was 3am, and I wasn't sleepy, and so I ended up just staying up.

Needless to say, once I got home I played around with Delia for a bit and then hit the sheets.

Speaking of whom, she woke up dry this morning so this afternoon we gave her a present: a hoppity-hop. Super, super cute to watch her boinging around the house on it!

So tomorrow morning after preschool I'm taking her down to my brother's for the weekend so I can write my patient presentation, which is sort of a term paper that counts for a significant portion of my grades this term. I'm not terribly freaked out about the paper, but it'll just be a lot easier to complete it without a three-year-old milling about the place. Plus, it's more than an hour's drive each way, which means uninterrupted Harry Potter on cd listening time! Yay!

Wednesday, February 20, 2008

Misery, misery

Is what nursing school is to me...

Actually, it's going pretty well, I'm just tired of having this broken finger, and now just in case I wasn't sufficiently burdened with school, work, home etc., I also have a rotten cold. I started getting sick last Thursday -- even to the point that I got sent home early from clinicals whic Just Does Not Happen -- and spent all weekend languishing at home feeling crappy. Took the weekend off from work and all that, to no avail. The snotty nose and sneezing and watery eyes started yesterday. If it weren't for Alka Seltzer Sinus Formula cold menu I don't know how I would have managed today. I have clinicals tomorrow and I'm hoping he'll let me hang around in the learning lab and stay the hell away from the fragile old folks who just don't need my cold.

As it was, I had to take the usual module tests this week (scores of 88, 90 and 85) and IV skills checkoff was today also. It's not due for a while yet but we've found that it's not wise to wait until the last minute. The lab gets all choked up with students and the wait times are unreal.

Aside from that all is about how you'd expect -- house an utter sty, friends neglected, etc. I did manage to wash the cars (exteriors only, alas) the other day when the weather was nice.

Delia is in the final stages of potty training -- she's been waking up dry! So tonight for the first time ever, she's going to bed with NO PULL-UP! I thought I'd give her the option, and she is going for it! If she pulls this off, she gets a present! And we'll save another fifteen bucks a month that we won't have to spend on pull-ups! Yay us!

Tuesday, February 12, 2008

Checking in

Okay, so I haven't blogged in ages. Partly this is because of my stupid broken finger, which I have gotten used to enough to type reasonably well. Also I have been quite busy. It turns out that nursing school is like a one way trip down an elevator shaft straight into hell. Yay hell!

We have two or three module tests per week, plus assignments, and skill checkoffs, and blah blah blah. It's crazy nuts. But my module tests are going well -- mostly 85's and up, with a couple of 75's (still passing!).

Then there's also involvement in the Euphemism College Student Nurse Club, which we are told is very impressive in one's portfolio, so I've become Assistant Flyers/Communication Officer, and attended a dinner about clinical trials put on by the Lymphoma Society, as well as the weekly ECSNC meetings. (Once the Army showed us a very compelling video and fed us pizza and plied us with pens and lanyards and so forth.)

In a couple of weeks we start training for the Medical Reserve Corps, which is one of those prepared-citizen-do-gooders groups that they mobilize during emergencies. They puffy heart having nurses and even lowly nursing students in these things, because odds are we might not actually harm anyone in administering first aid. In exchange for our involvement we get an extremely unattractive royal blue tshirts and baseball hats emblazoned with "Total Dork."

Last night I signed on to World of Warcrack, against all better judgement what with the homework load I have, and got sucked into Kara (an instance -- you non WoW players won't understand any of this) and despite the fact that I'm a total casual player still wearing a couple of greens and have only entered Kara a couple of times and totally on the coattails of other, better, more deserving players, I still received this fabulous bow when we downed one of the bosses. I am not worthy!

Not much else to tell. Delia is doing great, full of piss and vinegar as always, and sporting a curly little hairdo after her first ever haircut a couple of weeks ago.

Saturday, February 02, 2008

Mom, there's some stuff you should have known

Courtesy of Vonnie (I'll get you for this!) :)

Uh, Mom? Please never read this.

1. Remember when you dropped me off at a friend's house for a party? I had a bag of record albums, she lived a couple of blocks away, I directed you to a house with lights on and an open garage door? Yeah, I didn't know whose house it was, the girl was real but she lived somewhere else and wasn't having a party, and really what happened was that I slipped away after you'd driven off (mental note: always wait until the kid goes into the house before driving off). I went over and caught a bus to the mall and met a boy there who I didn't want anyone to know about because I already had a steady boyfriend. Eventually you found out about him because I told you, but I never did tell you about that first time I met up with him. Who knew I could be so devious! I'm boggling about it, this many years later.

(I'd met him at the Rocky Horror Picture Show. We dated off and on for a couple of years. He was a country boy with a car and permissive parents and oozed good natured bad boy charm, and I don't really regret any of it. :) Obviously this was before I came out.)


2. I can't really think of anything else because I was a Good Kid and there wasn't much else I did that you didn't already know about, like senior skip day, where you thought it was funny wrote me an excuse the next day, or that you didn't already find out about, i.e. various tattoos.

In your face, bad girls! My conscience is clean! I tag... Mel and Elizabeth.

Friday, February 01, 2008

mememememe

1. What time did you get up this morning ?
7:30, when my little alarm clock woke me up. Sure beat yesterday when I had to get up at 4:30 for Clinicals at 5:45.

2. Diamonds or Pearls ?
Meh. I like colored stones -- tanzanite, sapphires, emeralds.

3. What was the last film you saw at the movies?
Took Delia to see Ratatouille.

4.. What is your favorite TV show?
NCIS, and old sitcoms.

5. What do you usually have for breakfast?
Toast, or cereal, whatever.

6. What is your middle name?
Ready for this? It's.... (suspenseful interest-building pause here)... Lee.

7. What food(s) do you dislike?
Spicy hot foods. Ugh.

8. What is your favorite CD at the moment?
I don't even remember the last time I listened to a CD that wasn't Harry Potter.

9. What kind of car do you drive?
Lil' blue Mazda Protege5 which I love, and a Chevy Trailblazer which I also love.

10. Favorite sandwich?
Roast beef -- the yummy juicy kind that's pink in the middle -- on whole wheat with lettuce, tomato, a little mayo, a fair amount of horseradish, a little dijon, maybe some nice sharp cheddar.

11. What characteristics do you despise?
Jerky people who only suck up when they want something from you, and arrogant people.

12. Favorite item of clothing?
My crocs! And this orange plaid long sleeve button down shirt I've had forever that's getting a little frayed.

13. If you could go anywhere on vacation where would you go?
Spain.

14. What color is your bathroom?

The hall bath is blue with a cartoony dog/cat print shower curtain, it's kind of cute. The master bath is still resplendent in its original horrible 80's wallpaper, poorly applied by the previous owner

15. Favorite brand of clothing?
I do like Columbia Sportswear, also some Old Navy, beyond that it doesn't matter.

16. Where would you retire?
Close to my daughter. Close enough to be there and far enough away to not bug her too much.

17 Most memorable birthday?
Turned 40 last fall which was fun. Not the beach weekend boozefest I was hoping for, but fun. A number of years ago I had a birthday dinner with a lot of friends who happened to be choir singers and they serenaded me quite beautifully with the birthday song several times which stands out in my mind.

18. Favorite Sport to watch?
I don't watch 'em.

19. Summer or Winter?

Summer summer summer summersummersummersummer SUMMER!!!!!!!

20. Who do you expect to repost this?
Anybody who wants to... have at it, guys.

21. Person you most admire?
My mom. She rocks.

22. Favorite saying?
Better out than in, I always say...

Also, "Success is my only motherf*cking option." That will get me through nursing school.

23. When is your birthday?

Sept. 7th, when all the really cool people have their birthdays.

24. Are you a morning person or a night person?
Night, but I can fake being a morning person quite well.

25. What is your shoe size?
About a 9... but I have to wear a 10 because of my orthotics. :(

26. Pet?
Oh, thousands... 2 each of: dogs, cats, bunnies, chickens and goldfish.

27. What did you want to be when you were little?
I don't really remember. An artist, a writer, I guess.

28. What are you doing today?
Working.

29. What is your favorite candy?
Peanut butter Twix, lately.

30. What is your favorite flower?
Gerber daisy for me, too!

31. What is a day on the calendar you are looking forward to?

Spring break, then summer break, etc. :)

32. What church/temple do you attend?
United Church of Christ. We are a peaceable bunch.

33. What are you listening to right now?
TV in the other room.

34. What was the last thing you ate?
PB sandwich, dinner here was something I'm allergic to.

35. Do you believe in Angels?
Not sure.

36. If you were a crayon, what color would you be?
Purple, the dark blue purple kind.

37. What are your pet peeves?
If somebody leaves the empty milk jug on the counter for ME to rinse out.

38. Last person you spoke to on the phone?
J.

39. Favorite soft drink?
Coke omg cooooooooooooke

40. Favorite restaurant?
This Vietnamese and Thai place down the road a bit.

41. Hair Color?
Sigh... I've been asked if it "used to be" red. Yes, it did. Not so much anymore, apparently.

42. Siblings?
One brother.

43. Favorite day of the year?
Any day I get to spend with my daughter.

46. Hugs or kisses?
Hugs.

47. Chocolate or vanilla?
Chocolate. But vanilla ice cream.

48. Do you want your friends to repost this?
If they haven't already.

49. When was the last time you cried?
When I broke my finger last Sunday.

50. What is under your bed?
Just some art paper in a plastic snap-lid box, and a zippered clear plastic bag with a couple blankets in it, and a few dust bunnies.

51. Who is the friend you've had longest?
Who I still am in contact with semi regularly? Probably Graham, husband to Elizabeth.

52. What did you do last night?
Loafed.

53. Favorite smell?

Baking smells, like apple pie.

54. What are you afraid of?
Messing up my kids.

55. How many keys on your key ring?
Two cars plus house.

56. How many years at your current job?
Been with this agency off and on since 1991.

57. Favorite day of the week ?
Friday, the only day I have totally off.

58. How many towns have you lived in ?
Um... Looks like 8.

That's all folks!



Nursing school update

This week:

Took more module tests, scores were good -- an 85, and a 92? I have to start writing this stuff down. The 85 was on a test that everyone said was hard, so I felt okay about that.

Passed my IM injection skills check-off. With a broken finger. That I didn't know yet was broken.

Got back some homework: scores 20/20 and 28/30.

Completed my Clinicals and did the homework immediately, classmate who was going in anyway turned it in for me, thus saving me a trip up to the campus.

Coming up: module test due Monday, another Tuesday, another Friday. Gah.