And now for a little break.
It is Tuesday at 11 am. I am home from school and my second test. Nervous, sweaty, fear does not describe my total feelings, but it’s a start. It is really hot again today. Summer did come in with its usual vengeance. Sudden and swift. The first day of 90 degrees actually started during the night. Yes, it got hotter as the night progressed. It makes no sense. I think about it, but I have to stop. How can the temperature rise despite the setting sun and darkness, when theoretically it should get cooler. I know it’s a weather question and I am going to be a nurse, so, who cares? I will when I’m working emergency and it’s 100 degrees and everyone is over heated and ticked off and people start doing crazy things that end them up in the ER for me to work on. And I say, “How can it get hotter???” I’ll be praying for bad weather. It keeps people indoors and off the streets!
Anytesting…Second one was today. I literally studied most of the day Saturday, some Sunday, and hours more on Monday. In the day and the night. I can’t imagine when I have to do paperwork and skills. I’ll be sticking everyone I see with needles and taking their blood pressures and trying to give them enemas. I kid.
Unofficially, I missed zero questions on this test. All correct. That is good news. Without details, know that it is essential to miss as few as possible to achieve passing, for one, and higher scores, in the A and B range, for another. But I was sweating. You only have so much time, and I try not to second guess myself, and I studied for, like, 15 hours! Pressure.
(Personal revelation to follow, if you care.) I’ve always been strong with the book skills and pretty good with the hands-on. But I still get too nervous. I have a CPR class to take in the next few weeks and I want to go in strong. I know the whole thing has changed again since I did it last, but it still makes me jittery. I’m not sure if there is any breathing now, or if it’s just compression. I stink at the breaths. Luckily, for someone out there; experience-only-unlucky for me; I’ve never had to do it on a real person and when I was EMT (many many many years ago—very briefly) we used a bag. No mouth contact. Anyway, I’ve only used lifesaving once on a baby, choking. And that was just taps on the back. That’s a good thing. With more experience comes more ease of care. So we’ll find out.
Anyway, there’s a few more weeks left of school for the summer and one Final Test. Yikes.
As celebration I got McDonald’s–yay! I haven’t eaten those delicious burrito’s in WEEKS! For shame! I should have celebrated by running a fast four miles. Oh well. Don’t want to get heatstroke. And, I had to wait for my humiliation! It’s those hash browns. They take forever. But, it cost less than 5 bucks so, fair trade for my fat butt.
Next up are the butterflies. I have pics from the party. You didn’t think I forgot did you? I really have been focusing on school. I love it. And I want to do good. Stay tuned!
Second Nursing Book Ya’ll!!!
Here it is my second week into the “program”, and I have my second book!! Maybe not everyone is excited about spending money for books and school, but I am just excited as Hell!
I don’t mean to say that the money doesn’t give me a heart attack, because it does—these books ARE NOT cheap. BUT, they say you use them for 2 years and you will continue to use them throughout your life, so I say it’s a worthy investment in MY future. And yours too, actually.You WANT me to be smart and up to date right?? No one wants to be at the hospital getting procedures done in garden gloves using a pen case.
I don’t want to go on and on, and soon I won’t have the time for it anyhow…but I am really happy for the opportunity I am about to embark on…learning to give YOU an enema! And, you, a Catheter! I will be begging for the days of sponge baths and linen changes!
The book I just bought is Basic Nursing. It’s exciting and scary at the same time. I know I keep using that word…Exciting! I am anxious to learn but a bit nervous too. I love flipping through the text, and imagining how much more I’ll know in 6 months. And then how much MORE in the next 6. And in 6 after that…It’s cool, and I’m ready. The book is here next to me, just like the first, and I guess it really won’t EVER be leaving my side. (One more time…exciting! That will be the last for today, I promise–here, anyway)
But I have alot more to do today. So, changing tracks…I have to go get groceries…woohoo…for you sissy…I’ll spare ya’ the list though.
As some of you may or may not know, we’re having a grad party here Saturday for my niece. 8th grade! High school is next. Party is here and I need some stuff, plus the kids have just 3 stinking days left of school, but I’m out of lunch material…so close.
I need to exercise sometime…still have training to do and that whole 20 pound thing I set for myself…plus I need to modify my diet for fatness, sickness and zitty rashness. Let me explain. The fatness, pretty much is what it says. Cut out the foods that are making me fat, I’m talking to you Fuddruckers and Pizza—adds pounds AND as a bonus that apparently comes with the new age bracket I’m about to enter…these foods make me SICK. Literally. Heartburn, indigestion, sweaty, crampy, bloaty, gassy, dizzy and nauseous. I WISH I was exaggerating. I NEVER used to get sick from food or have heartburn or gas or any of that, and I was pregnant twice with no ill effects (believe me, I know how lucky I was).
For a laugh–now–check this post out–yuk. Never doing that again!!
The last part is this new zitty rashy thing I have going, but just sometimes. I noticed it after I switched my diet from regular fast food/junk to Body For Life. Healthy, carb-protein balance, whole grains, low-fat, etc…Lost the weight but gained a red, rashy, itchy area on my face. Looks like acne accelerated. Never had a problem before. I narrowed it down to wheat products. Not severe or anything, but just annoying enough that I knew something was up. Extreme Fat Smash really zeroed in on the prob. Follow it exactly and it’s mostly vegetarian. Salad, Yogurt, Beans and RICE. That’s key. I have no trouble with rice, it’s the bread, pasta, cracker, wheat/flour based stuff that seems to give me the itches. So, long story longer. I am in my second day of trying to avoid ALL wheat products to eat. So far, so good. It’s harder than you think. I can get away with, like one sandwich, or one thing like pizza crust, but after that, the area right around my nostril starts itching and then right along my frown lines—for reference–I really don’t HAVE wrinkles and lines and all that—wimper–that’s just where the itching would be…oh forget it…you know, it itches and gets red and it looks like I have a rash around my mouth area on the cheeks. I’ve eliminated topical things like makeup and soap. Same products for years no change. It has to be the food. So big whoop anyway. I don’t need to eat all that stuff. It’s too many calories, and as we all know (see above) I don’t know when to stop!
My sympathies and extreme RESPECT to all you moms or dads or brothers/sisters/grands/selves…whoever…who HAVE to be so cautious and avoid even specks of wheat or it could be illness for weeks or death. You have a hard path to follow and one day I hope it won’t be an issue anymore for anyone. It’s just amazing that food for life can be inherently threatening. And all I’m worried about is a rash.
Anyway, my point was to be funny and end on the note that while I was typing this I was eating my weight in scrambled eggs. Just eggs and milk in butter with a little cheese. I add all the ingredients so I know what’s in it. And now I have to go work it off. (At the store–remember about 5 paragraphs ago?–I talk way too much)
So that’s it, let me get out before the kids come home. I’m sure something MORE boring and mind-numbing will occur and I can spend another hour typing later. Just you wait!
Meanwhile, enjoy these pictures of a Bulldog they had at the pet store. If we were going to get a dog, this breed was the one we all unanimously agreed on. And here was one for sale! Impulse purchase! I told my son, if this particular dog was UNDER $1000, I would buy him on the spot. I don’t know why. Can’t afford it, don’t want to train it, but I felt at that moment I would. I would do everything that I had to….they must have been pumping something into the air that day…but we checked and ultimately went home empty handed. Hopefully someone with more disposable income gave him a home. He really was adorable.
And fyi–You know I’m gonna tell you—that dog cost $3299. Yes. THREE THOUSAND, three hundred.
Registered!
To go to school! It’s official and all that good stuff!
I sat on my couch until 12 Noon and then drove to the school. The Orientation/Registration wasn’t until one, but I didn’t want to be late for any reason. Now, that might sound crazy to you, but I was not the first one. There was probably 10 or more people waiting already! Freaks alive! We are a nervous bunch! But I’ll tell you, from my personal experience alone, I worked my ass off for three years going to work all day, and school at night. I studied until all hours and weekends and breaks at work. I got the best grades I could and the highest scores. I cried tears over this stuff, just to get to THIS point. Now I have two more years of specific nursing studies and I can’t relax now!
I pretty much burned up 3½ hours of adrenaline, nerves and sweat at the school registering, paying, filling out all the forms, and buying uniforms and books. I was shaking so bad I could barely hand the cashier my money. I checked and double checked everything I might need before I left. I have to start class next week and I have no room for error. Walking out of the school, down the steps, towards my car, after it was all over, I called the BF to tell him I was official, and I could barely leave the message. Once I got to the point of being scheduled and paid for, I was crying. I hung up and just let it flow. It was 80 degrees outside and sunny as hell and I felt relieved and happy. Sunshine and tears were burning my eyes and itching my cheeks and maybe I looked kind of strange, but it’s ok. There’s enough sad things to cry over, for sure, so when something is overwhelmingly good and it’s something that you really really wanted and got…then when else can you cry?
So, in the end, I went home and waited for my kids and BF and my second brother and wife and we went and ate pizza and drank beer! It was a lovely end to the day!
And as an extra bonus, I got an awesome body massage from the BF after the kids were in bed! Unexpected and sooooo nice and a happy ending. It was a good night.
That’s enough mush for now. I have to go and stare at my very first actual nursing textbook; Contemporary Nursing: Issues, Trends & Management, some more. I’m sure I’ll dread even looking at all my books in about 6 months, but for now, I just want to carry it around and keep it close.
After that, (the book is sitting next to me on the couch), I have to run over to the Target and buy like, 5 more alarm clocks, so I’m not late going to classes.
Alright, that’s really all about it. Mindless posting for the rest of the day and week until I can’t find the time to do it anymore. I’ll probably go run at some point too. Gotta keep up the training and it burns nervous energy.
Thanks for hanging through the goo until the end!
Monday. All is well in Tree-velle
Mother Nature saw fit to spare my trees and me this year of throwing off any more of their limbs into my back yard. Maybe it’s because I already have a forest of limbs ready to cut up; or maybe I’ve been extra good; or maybe, the Rotation of the Earth, Atmosphere, and Global Warming just couldn’t muster up enough high velocity wind to knock any down this weekend; (???) Whatever the reason, I feel relieved. It takes me all summer to get rid of what is already there…just in time for next year….but we won’t go there right now.
As for the other Mother…me…my day rocked from top to bottom and is rolling on today. Sounds corny. Looks corny typed but I’m having writing issues. I’m working on it with a Miller Lite and some leftover pizza. Stay until the end of the post, it should be real good and sappy.
Where I left off: Sat. PM.: Waiting for Mom and sister. They arrived, and we went to the restaurant. The food was not as great as it could have been for the money, but it was gigantic! Please click on the food item to see a snapshot of said entreé:
QUEEN FILET w/ GIANT VEGETABLES
The Dirty Martini, I had, however, was excellent. Skyy Vodka and Bleu Cheese Olives–(yum–not gross like you would think)
We gave the Mom our present–digital camera–now everyone on Earth finally has one!
I gave my sissy her little present: CLICK HERE!! She’s so silly.
We ate, we drank, we went home. I went to bed.
Sunday: Kids are delivered to me by their other Aunty (Dad’s side) who had a 6-month Halloween Party–fully decorated, scary movies, costumes, etc…she’s a bit of a loony…Saturday night. I was immediately given my Mother’s Day presents; two gifts my children could barely keep a secret since buying them for me on Thursday night.
Drum-roll please….a Candy/Chocolate Pizza… AND… a Toaster!
It doesn’t look like much typed out, but believe me, when I unwrapped the big box handed to me by my son, a toaster was the LAST thing I was expecting to see. I laughed so hard I was crying. The reason it was funny is because the toaster we have, (had), just started toasting weird this past week, like Monday. It burned one side and didn’t cook the other. My son was not happy. He likes perfectly toasty toast. But he never even said anything. Then 6 days later–there it was: New toaster! It’s ingenious. His poor girlfriend/wife.
Anyway, that picture is below. I was told that I keep posting the same pics so I need to get more creative. Thanks boyfriend! Helpful criticism is always appreciated.
After the presents we went to the Monee Reservoir in Monee, IL and fished for a few hours. It was windy and chill and kept trying to rain on us. The BF is the only one that caught a fish. Picture here: BLACK CRAPPIE
We over-enthusiastically bought two boxes of NightCrawlers (in the fridge–yuk) and a dozen minnows. The guy gave us alot more though, so we took them home and fed them to the Oscars. An exciting day for all of us!
Then we motored on over to El Famous Burrito. Very delicious guacamole and the BEST Chicken Quesadilla. It’s not on the menu so you have to ask for it specifically–but it’s the best thing they have there! Especially if you get it later in the day, with all the soaked chicken in that magic red grease juice. My kids love it with fries…
Night time. Bed time. School time…moving into Monday AM: As soon as my kids were dropped off I zoomed over to the post office to pick up my very important Certified Letter. I missed the damn thing by a few hours on Saturday:
My acceptance into Nursing School for Fall!! Thank god. Four more semesters and I’m done. Four more really tough semesters. I’ve been going to school part-time, work in the day, school at night, for the last three years to get to this point…the adventure begins….
Kids, if you are reading this…go to school RIGHT AWAY. How ever you can get there! Do not get a full time job (unless it’s like 100K +), get married, have 2 kids, get divorced, turn 40 and THEN decide that maybe school is the way to go. It’s do-able when you are older but easier when you are younger. Please, please, please, listen to me!!
So, I got my letter. I’ve read and re-read the thing 100 times. Took pictures. Stared at it while waiting for the BF’s Mom at the doctor’s office, and thought about it the whole time I ran around the Forest Preserve Trail today; 3.6 miles of happiness. Not SO hard to get around this time…
And here I am. Finishing this. Beer is almost done. One last drink….It might not seem like much, to some, but it is for me. I’m going to be a nurse.
Here is my playlist for the day. Used it today. It’s called, “Pretty Beautiful.”
That’s just about right.
just shy of pretty 