get up, survive, go back to bed

Okay, so here's what my life has been for the past week: had a big group project due on Sunday for the online class (that was a royal pain in the butt, not to mention a perfectly good waste of precious, precious time); on Monday I had a Health Assessment exam and a medical terminology test; and on Tuesday? uh-huh, that's right, Patho and I went for round number 3. And even though I came out of that test feeling as beaten up as I did the first two, I actually did okay. I scored a good 10 points better than I did on the first two, and that, to me, is very cool. The down side to this is that because I spent SO MUCH TIME and energy preparing for this exam, I am now exhausted and having quite a bit of a struggle focusing on the new material. Although I have barely won these first three battles, the war will be decided on July 7. On that day, Patho and I will face off on a comprehensive final exam.

My new strategies include the purchase of a digital voice recorder. So now, in addition to watching DVDs of Dr. G's lectures, I can listen to them while I'm washing the dishes and cooking and cleaning and playing with my dogs and shopping for groceries ... basically, I literally hear this man's voice in my head during my every waking moment. And I seriously look forward to the day he just shuts up.

Another new strategy: I dropped my ineffectual study group. I just didn't want to deal with all the negative attitudes there. And apparently it was a good move since I did so much better on this exam than the previous ones.

Last new strategy: The Smarty -pants girl on the front row who rakes in all the pens for answering questions in class is now one of my new study buddies. I figured I would benefit more from her friendship than from pummeling her with my 20-lb Patho book, so I asked if I could join their study group since I ditched my own. Turns out Smarty-pants girl is actually pretty cool. So now I have a good study group full of people who do not have bad attitudes and who are making passing grades ... ROCK ON!

The other thing about Smarty-pants girl: she has no practical skills whatsoever. She's totally new to taking vital signs and doing the actual stuff of nursing. I mentioned to her when we were practicing our vital signs that no matter how many hundreds of blood pressures I've checked, I still get a little nervous about hearing and reading it accurately, and she said, "That makes me feel so much better. I'm totally new to this and the blood pressure thing just baffles me." It's a biotrophic symbiotic parasitic relationship we now have.

The only non-school related thing that's happened is a Red Cross volunteer thing I did on Tuesday after my Patho exam. Some of the soldiers from our area who were in Iraq returned home Tuesday evening and the Red Cross was there to greet them and their families with cakes and cookies and chips and all that. It was a happy occasion. It was just the pick-me-up I needed after that wretched exam. One of the other volunteers is a retired nurse, although she looks and acts way too young to be retired. S is fabulous and I just love her. She's also single. So after most of the soldier folks had split, there was a group of guys still there just talking amongst themselves and I was all like, "S, you should meet one of those guys. Obviously they are not married or their wives would have been here to greet them."
S: "Well, it's just so hard to tell how old they are with their shaved heads."
Me: "Honey, they are legal, and that is all that matters."
S: "So which one do you have your eye on?"
Me: "Oh, pretty much all of them, but I'll share."

Keep the prayers and good thoughts, etc, coming - they totally got me through this last exam. At one point I was starting to panic and hyperventilate and basically have massive systemic breakdown, when I just closed my eyes, took a deep breath and reminded myself, "My momma is praying for me right now. All I can do is the best I can do." You know what they say, as long as there are exams, there will be prayer in schools.