Classes started today. As much as I did not want this to happen so soon - didn't we JUST END summer semester? - it seems that time does continue marching forward regardless of my feelings about the matter. If it's going to move so fast, the least it could do is just jump ahead a year so that I'm staring down my last semester rather than my second.
What I did on my 3-week long summer vacation ...
As previously mentioned, I spent quite a bit of time playing at the river.
I saw a movie at the theater. T and I went to see Wanted. It was ok. Angelina Jolie is, as always, a total bad-ass in this movie.
I went to Dollywood. A nursing school friend and his wife have season passes to Dollywood, and they can get guests in for free. So E and I went with them and a couple of other folks. I'm happy to report that I do still have roller coaster stamina.
I met a guy. And went on dates. Of course, I did not meet this fella anywhere 'round these parts because apparently there's an extreme deficit of single, straight men here. E convinced me to try the online thing. She made a good argument. She pointed out that we have 3 weeks off from school,we live in a place where it's very hard to meet guys unless you like hanging out in bars, which I do not, and I didn't have to post my picture or name. Of course, all of this encouragement was very easy for E since she's married. There was no fear of me coming back with, "I'll do it if you do it." I'm convinced that singles sites would completely vanish if it weren't for peer pressure. So, I posted a profile, sans photo, with no expectation that anyone would contact me, but it gave me a chance to window shop and wink at a fella here and there. Seriously, it's very much like shopping on Ebay. I love shopping on Ebay. It's fun to go through and post bids on things knowing damn well that I will NEVER win the bid. It's like retail therapy without total annihilation of my checking account. But lo and behold if I didn't start getting contacted by guys. Most of them were just blatant, "You interested?" kind of messages (um, no, I'm not >delete<) but one stood out. His message was short, well-written and at the end he said, "Even if you don't respond to this, we may get a chance to meet someday if you go into flight nursing due to my line of work." Okay, I took the bait. I responded. "What is it that you do that puts you in contact with flight nurses?" State trooper. Damn! A COP! Just my luck. The one articulate, interesting nibble on my profile is a law enforcement officer. Don't get me wrong - men in uniform are HOT. But do I really want to date one rather than merely admire them all from a nice, long distance just out of radar? Oh well, why not? Dude could prove to be a valuable resource in learning how to avoid the po-po. So, that's been fun. I actually called him one afternoon as I was speeding down the interstate and asked if it was, in fact, illegal to drive bare-foot. It is not. All this time I thought I was exercising extreme passive resistance to The Man by driving without shoes, and it's not even a bad deed. I'll have to come up with something else.
Today, I had my first Foundations Lab. In this class, we will learn how to do a lot of things that I already know how to do. But we will also learn how to do the one thing I've been dreading since I embarked on this journey: Foley catheters. There is nothing I fear more. I know it's a basic and simple procedure, but ... ARRRGH ... the DREAD. Yes, I will be facing my fear this semester. We will also learn how to give all kinds drugs in all kinds of ways, except for IVs. That part comes later. Before we left class, we had to get more photo IDs made and stand in line to be issued a Lab Bag that contains all our gear for this semester. I came very close to starting a cadence. I'm not even kidding when I refer to this program as Boot Camp for Nurses.
Monday, August 25, 2008
Monday, August 11, 2008
doing the river dance
Oddly, it seems that now that I have a break from school I have less to say than when all I had to say was that I was studying for an exam. I did finally get my final grades: A in Health Assessment; A in Community Nursing; C+ in Pathophysiology ... what a freakin' GPA-buster. Oh, I also FINALLY got my summer school tuition reimbursement check. I picked it up last Wednesday and went to the bank with it, only to discover at 4:15 that the bank closes at 4. Apparently Corporate America was determined that I not have this money. On Thursday, I had to make a special trip all the way back into town just to put the damn check in the bank.
I've been spending time at the river with E and the dogs. I actually have tan lines for the first time in YEARS! And yes, I do use sun block.
One day last week I went to E's and we baked muffins using fresh blueberries she picked that morning. My contribution to this project was supplying the muffin tin and putting some batter into the muffin tin. E did the rest. She's very good at that sort of thing. I am not.
That same evening about 12 of us from the nursing program got together and played volleyball ... for 2.5 hours. I went from playing volleyball straight into boxing class. The next day I was able to identify every single muscle in my body and what each one actually did based on the level of pain associated with movement. Also, I had some crazy bruises on my arms - huge, purple, swollen bruises.
Tomorrow my plan is to turn in my paper work to the scholarship folks. Perhaps if they get started on it now, I'll have my fall tuition money by Christmas. In addition to giving them a copy of my fall semester bill and my class schedule, I have to turn over my report card. They are very curious about what kind of grades their scholarship recipients are getting. I hope to offer up something more impressive with my upcoming fall semester report card.
Also on the agenda for tomorrow is buying books for my fall classes. I do not want to do this. I want to continue on with my blissful denial of school ever starting again.
I also have to go by the financial aid office and see if they can help me track down some financial aid money. I applied back in February for this coming school year, but haven't really heard anything back about whether or not I will be getting money this time 'round.
And, since I will be in town, I may pop by the uniform store and get my scrubs. Because this semester? I actually get to go into the hospital and do stuff. With real patients. Scary.
I've been spending time at the river with E and the dogs. I actually have tan lines for the first time in YEARS! And yes, I do use sun block.
One day last week I went to E's and we baked muffins using fresh blueberries she picked that morning. My contribution to this project was supplying the muffin tin and putting some batter into the muffin tin. E did the rest. She's very good at that sort of thing. I am not.
That same evening about 12 of us from the nursing program got together and played volleyball ... for 2.5 hours. I went from playing volleyball straight into boxing class. The next day I was able to identify every single muscle in my body and what each one actually did based on the level of pain associated with movement. Also, I had some crazy bruises on my arms - huge, purple, swollen bruises.
Tomorrow my plan is to turn in my paper work to the scholarship folks. Perhaps if they get started on it now, I'll have my fall tuition money by Christmas. In addition to giving them a copy of my fall semester bill and my class schedule, I have to turn over my report card. They are very curious about what kind of grades their scholarship recipients are getting. I hope to offer up something more impressive with my upcoming fall semester report card.
Also on the agenda for tomorrow is buying books for my fall classes. I do not want to do this. I want to continue on with my blissful denial of school ever starting again.
I also have to go by the financial aid office and see if they can help me track down some financial aid money. I applied back in February for this coming school year, but haven't really heard anything back about whether or not I will be getting money this time 'round.
And, since I will be in town, I may pop by the uniform store and get my scrubs. Because this semester? I actually get to go into the hospital and do stuff. With real patients. Scary.
Saturday, August 2, 2008
Rockin' It Like A Rock Star
I have completed my first semester of nursing school! Only 4 more to go before I'm let loose on the world. I'm still not sure how I'm going to be magically transformed into someone with life-saving/sustaining skills in this short amount of time - this whole experience is kind of like boot camp for nurses.
E and I recently took Smarty-pants girl to the river. Smarty-pants girl is not exactly the outdoorsy type, but she did surprisingly well. No complaining or anything, well, not much complaining. It was pretty funny watching her gingerly make her way down the very steep trail that leads to the river while holding a cell phone in one hand and bottled water in the other and carrying a very large bag filled with ... what? I don't know. A laptop maybe? She was quite the trooper, though. She even endured being showered with the river water that our dogs shook off. This was probably the only time in her entire life that she will ever step foot in water that hasn't been purified, so I feel like I've contributed in some small way to making her a more well-rounded individual.
School is out for 3 weeks and I'm already puttering around the house wondering what it is I used to do before life as a nursing student. I figured cleaning my house was a good place to start, and in doing so I found my banjo! Ahhh ... a project. Can I learn to play the thing in only 3 weeks? Stay tuned ... Speaking of tuning, I totally broke a string trying to tune up the banjo, so my homeschooling on a musical instrument is postponed until further notice.
Today I got out my studio supplies and started playing around with some creative stuff! Mostly all I've managed to create is a huge mess in the middle of the floor.
Over this nice, long break I do actually have some things to take care of. First on the agenda is getting the school to release my summer school tuition reimbursement check. This needs to happen soon, like last week. Or there's going to be trouble. BIG TROUBLE. The kind that involves me asking my friends to post bail.
Next on the list of Things To Do is get my scrubs for next semester! They have to be embroidered ... at least until the Powers That Be change their minds. I'm totally going to try the Grey's Anatomy scrubs, because that material? It's totally fabulous! Unlike regular scrub material, the GA scrubs are made from a rayon blend and they actually drape. So instead of looking like I'm wearing frumpy pajamas, I'll look like I'm wearing silky pajamas. And that would totally rock.
Other things include stuff like getting my car checked out because it's making some weirdo noise, getting Puck's nails trimmed, and cleaning my lab coat. I wore my lab coat for all of 2 hours and now it's filthy ... how does this happen?
Grades haven't been posted yet, but I know I got an A in that wretched online class. And I made a 100 on my final skills assessment in Health Assessment class, I also made a 100 on the documentation part for the skills assessment, and I made a 96 on the final exam .... who's a rock star! (Just for the record, Smarty-pants girl made a 90 on the final exam. Seems the actual skills of nursing are a bit more challenging for her than Patho was ... nice to know there is balance in the world)
E and I recently took Smarty-pants girl to the river. Smarty-pants girl is not exactly the outdoorsy type, but she did surprisingly well. No complaining or anything, well, not much complaining. It was pretty funny watching her gingerly make her way down the very steep trail that leads to the river while holding a cell phone in one hand and bottled water in the other and carrying a very large bag filled with ... what? I don't know. A laptop maybe? She was quite the trooper, though. She even endured being showered with the river water that our dogs shook off. This was probably the only time in her entire life that she will ever step foot in water that hasn't been purified, so I feel like I've contributed in some small way to making her a more well-rounded individual.
School is out for 3 weeks and I'm already puttering around the house wondering what it is I used to do before life as a nursing student. I figured cleaning my house was a good place to start, and in doing so I found my banjo! Ahhh ... a project. Can I learn to play the thing in only 3 weeks? Stay tuned ... Speaking of tuning, I totally broke a string trying to tune up the banjo, so my homeschooling on a musical instrument is postponed until further notice.
Today I got out my studio supplies and started playing around with some creative stuff! Mostly all I've managed to create is a huge mess in the middle of the floor.
Over this nice, long break I do actually have some things to take care of. First on the agenda is getting the school to release my summer school tuition reimbursement check. This needs to happen soon, like last week. Or there's going to be trouble. BIG TROUBLE. The kind that involves me asking my friends to post bail.
Next on the list of Things To Do is get my scrubs for next semester! They have to be embroidered ... at least until the Powers That Be change their minds. I'm totally going to try the Grey's Anatomy scrubs, because that material? It's totally fabulous! Unlike regular scrub material, the GA scrubs are made from a rayon blend and they actually drape. So instead of looking like I'm wearing frumpy pajamas, I'll look like I'm wearing silky pajamas. And that would totally rock.
Other things include stuff like getting my car checked out because it's making some weirdo noise, getting Puck's nails trimmed, and cleaning my lab coat. I wore my lab coat for all of 2 hours and now it's filthy ... how does this happen?
Grades haven't been posted yet, but I know I got an A in that wretched online class. And I made a 100 on my final skills assessment in Health Assessment class, I also made a 100 on the documentation part for the skills assessment, and I made a 96 on the final exam .... who's a rock star! (Just for the record, Smarty-pants girl made a 90 on the final exam. Seems the actual skills of nursing are a bit more challenging for her than Patho was ... nice to know there is balance in the world)
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