trials and tribulations

Yeah, yeah ... I know ... it's been almost two weeks since my last posting. I was feeling so defeated after my first Patho exam that I just couldn't bring myself to write about it. I mean, I passed it ... by a hair. I've seriously never worked so hard for such a low grade in my life. And now I'm facing another one. On Tuesday. Have I been studying? You betcha. That's pretty much ALL I've been doing. And that does not make for an interesting blog post, now does it? So I will try to fill in around the edges a bit.

I did do one fun thing recently. T and I had a girl's evening last Friday! That's right ... we went to see Sex And The City! The experience was fun, the movie was marginal. There was a group of women sitting behind us in the theater who started chatting it up with us - they were all like, "Girls!, we are going for cocktails after the movie ... you two should come with us! It'll be FUN!" I think what they meant to say was "We're going for MORE cocktails after the movie." Nothing brings women together faster than a movie about women! After the movie, T and I popped into a shoe store that's in the same shopping center as the theater. Actually, with the exception of our new best friends who were at the bar by then, I think most of the women from the theater were in the shoe store. Of course, T and I were not buying because we are poor nursing students, but there's almost as much joy in just trying on all the weirdo shoes that you would never wear even if you could afford to buy them. The next day I saw an article in the local newspaper about a group of ten nurses who rented a limo to take them to the movie and out for cocktails afterward - each of the nurses was dressed as her favorite SATC character ... and I bet they were wearing some of those fancy shoes that you just can't wear out to any ol' place. Like I said, SATC is an experience, not just a movie.

Okay, so my new strategy to conquer the upcoming Patho exam is to assign all my loved ones diseases. We are covering diseases of the blood and cardiovascular system, so I'm doling out leukemia and malignant lymphomas and atherosclerosis, just to name a few, to my nearest and dearest. Why am I giving my loved ones diseases rather than people I do not love so much? Because if someone I love tells me they have some scary disease, the first thing I'm going to do is research every possible resource for information. I will find out everything I can about it, and try to figure out how I can make it all better. However, if I hear of someone I do not love so much coming down with something nasty, I'm going to be all like, "Karma just bit you in the butt, didn't it." Hell hath no fury, and all that. So if any of my nearest and dearest are reading this, chances are I've given you a disease, but only because I love you more than chocolate. But not to worry! You will be miraculously cured next Tuesday ... only to fall victim to a respiratory affliction.

Oh yeah, we started an additional class this week. Health Assessment. I actually look forward to this class because we will learn how to DO THINGS. NURSING THINGS. And the very first day I got to use my nifty new stethoscope and sphygmomanometer (that's a big, shiny word that means blood pressure cuff) provided by those who now own me (the people who gave me that fabulous scholarship). I love how all of my equipment has their logo on it ... even the watch. I haven't even started working for these folks and I've already gotten a watch. I wonder what they give for a 5-year service award.

In other news, I now know where the Doggie ER is because I've been there ... twice. All is well now, but Bubba Magoo gave me quite the scare a couple of weeks ago. He was having some kind of reaction to something ... it was unlike anything I've ever seen. And apparently, he baffled the vet, too. But she plied him with drugs and whatever was going on stopped. And now I have all these really great pictures of Bub's insides. I'm looking for some nice frames so I can hang them in my house. Because those pictures? They were very expensive and should be properly framed and displayed. That way, every time I get hungry I can just look at one of those pictures of Bub's insides and think, "Right there is why my cupboard is bare. But damn if he doesn't have a fine looking set of lungs."