Distractions

You know how when you have something really, really important to do ALL of those other things you could be doing become really, really even More important?

I've got it BAD this semester. We just started back last week after a three week hiatus. I am taking Obstetrics and Pediatrics which I have been looking forward to since I started the program. Unfortunately, after my summer semester I am simply burned out on nursing school. I am just having a hard time mustering up a good givafuck.

Instead, I have been enjoying hanging out with my two spectacular roommates, having fun discussions with Wesley about this that and the other, and virtually anything I can find to do that doesn't involve studying or working on careplans. Truth is, I don't care how many centimeters a woman's cervix can be dilated and labor still be delayed (up to 4, by the way). Or maybe I do. I know I at least care about graduating seeing as how the rest of my life depends on it and all.

In other news, Wesley and I are going to Jackson for the weekend. It is our four year anniversary since our very first date. As a matter of fact, I'm sitting at the table next to the one we sat in on our first date at this coffeehouse (where I came to study). We are going to see my mom and step-dad, my dad and brother, my grandmother, and my surrogate family throughout high school, the Hall-Shaffery's. It should be a blast of a weekend with mimosa brunches, boat rides, barbeques, and a hot date on Saturday night. Wesley also says he has a surprise planned for me. I have no bloomin' idea what it is and am dying to find out! All I know is that it may or may not have something to do with a microwave... I know. Your guess is as good as mine.

Are you a hiccup murderer?

You know you are guilty. We all are. Atone for your sins by watching this funny little animated short.

Blogger Hiatus

It's a dirty little trick we play on one another to disappear from the virtual coffeeshop that is blogging. I doubt it is ever intentional but the silent treatment can be just as unpleasant here as it is in reality. I know I have worried about a person's health a time or two when I didn't get to read any antics for a stretch. Even though I've only got a small group of blogbuddies (that I love dearly), I'm sorry for leaving you guys on the hooks.

So here I am. Back in Bloggerland for a visit. Life has been moving at warp-speed for the past couple of months. I've had times when I could have sat down and tapped something out on the keyboard but I just wasn't sure what pieces to share. I did start to write about the conclusion of my internship at the institution for mental retardation. This is how far I got before saving it and forgetting about it:

I have come to the end of yet another semester at SBFU (Southern Baptists Fundies University). The summer semester started off well with prospects of learning new things at my clinical site and my psychology internship site. I did indeed learn a myriad of things at both places. Some fall under the category of 'text book knowledge' and many things fall under the auspices of 'the truth about reality.'

I learned the sad truth that even at a facility where hard work, dedication, and advocacy can be found, clients are still often treated in a sub-ethical way. The inappropriate things I saw and heard about were typically sins of neglect rather than abuse. They were nonetheless heart breaking. Many of these children cannot communicate and advocate for themselves and therefore can be subjected to somewhat legal but definitely unethical treatment. It broke my heart. My last day was on Wednesday (July 25th) and I was so grateful. I fell in love with the children I worked with and their lives both inspired me and broke my heart. It isn't something I can readily describe beyond that point. One must experience such a thing in order to understand it I think. Or maybe I'm just bad with words.

I am in Asheville right now. I have been here for two weeks and have a week left before I have to go home and start classes again. The first week we had visitors from Michigan and Memphis, as well as a weekend long meeting in Greenville, SC. My mom got into town before I even got the first three people on their planes. We had a very pleasant visit during the five days she was here. She and Wesley got to know each other better and it was wonderful to see them getting along so splendidly. Also, I will have pictures from our visit to the Biltmore estate and hiking expeditions on my gallery website soon.

Life is busy, life is good. It's moving along at a happy pace towards a destination that I am looking forward to reaching. The storyline might be changing sometime in the near future and I look forward to that.

The Hug

I've made a friend at the special education school where I have been interning this summer. He's non-communicative, but is a very bright boy with a huge capacity for emotion. He is a sweetheart. I simply love him to pieces and I'm really going to miss him when I stop going next week.

Today we were outside with the children. C was in his wheelchair, sitting not far from me. We were 'talking' when he reached out his long arms one at a time. First arm came over and I took his hand in mine. We shook hands and he smiled. Second arm came over and I leaned in closer and took his other hand. He pulled me close and held me with his arms wrapped around my shoulders for the longest time. It was one of the sweetest hugs I've ever been given. A child's hug, innocent, with no expectations. We both had smiles on our faces for quite a while after that. He simply made my day.

Ether=Love

Now, I understand that everyone deserves happiness and that one person's idea of happiness wouldn't match my own. I do. But I have Never seen desperation meet desperation like it does at MailOrderHusbands.com. I was clicking through Stumble when I came upon this Beaut of a site. I thought it was a farce, maybe a part of the Onion or something. Oh no. It's real my friends. People like Steven really want you to buy a chance for matrimonial bliss with them.

Name: Steven
I'm definitely a classic romantic. I like a candlelight dinner, some quiet background music, and a couple hits of ether. I prefer a woman that has insurance and a car would be great as I need to make the occassional trip to Mexico to pick up "souvenirs".
Location: New Mexico, U.S.A.

The site even has an article in MailOrderBrides monthly magazine to advertise their services. The interview (posted on the website) is hysterical. Almost as funny as the paint-thinner drinking romeo competing with Steven for my checkbook, er, I mean affection.

I weep for humanity.

The alarm goes off at 5:15 Monday morning. This is early. I mean, hot damn, way early. I somehow manage to get myself out of bed and into my whites knowing that it's going to be a long day. By the time I arrive at the hospital I am alert and ready to go.
I got to see all sorts of awesome-grossness and do all sorts of nursing-type things. It was a blast. I did a double-clinical so that I could have Thursday off and come to Asheville early. I didn't leave until 11:00 that night. I came so close to doing my first 16H shift. I was only slightly delirious by the time I got home although I did manage to snap at a classmate for asking a stupid question (she understood) and make a slightly lewd suggestion to my professor regarding our one male classmate. That was about the time we were let off the hook early.

After a few hours sleep I woke up at the same time on Tuesday. I was supposed to move the clothes to the dryer. I didn't. And now I have a random assortment of mismatched clothes with me. I got to school early and took my psychology midterm that was given to the rest of the class the night before. My psych professors have been graciously accommodating. I couldn't do it without their help. After that was the Med-Surg lecture at 8:30.

12:30 comes and it's finally time to get out of dodge. I hop in the car, find Tom Petty's Saving Grace on the Ipod, roll down the windows and hit the road. I get about fifteen miles outside of town when my car just decides that she has had enough. The engine is still running, but not getting gas. I slowly decelerate until I am stalled on the side of the highway. Need I remind you that this is Mississippi in July. It takes about 2 minutes before I am sweating like a linebacker. I wait, call Wesley, call Dad, curse my luck and try to turn the car on again. It cranks. It goes. It stops. I think I might have made the sailors on the coast blush- I'm sure they heard me. I call AAA. I call the roommate. Roommie comes to get me and take me back to the house. Mom drives from Jackson and takes me to my grandmother's never-used car, and the tow-truck picks up Jezebel (yes, that's her name). Ok, things are moving along. {Thanks Mom, Dad, and Courtney for all of your help!) and I get on the road at 6:00 PM. Luckily, Mamaw's car is a very comfy 2003 Accord and the drive was uneventful from Jackson on. I made it to Asheville around 3:30 AM, exhausted and hyped up on Sobe energy drinks.

Part II to come.

Like a virgin... Grossed out for the very first time...

Like a viiiiiiii-iiiiiiiii-rrrrrgin....

Tomorrow is going to be a big day; lots of cool things going on at the hospital. These are not all from the same patient, but I will get my first real experience with most of them in the morning. I'm pumped, Are you??

a TPN line
a Foley Catheter
MRSA infection
an open wound with wet-to-dry dressing changes
a colostomy bag
giving insulin
and an NG tube

My big question right now is 'Why in the world do they make us wear white uniforms??'

Just call me Bubbles

Remember the 'phone in the disposal' incident? Or maybe the 'glasses in the dishwasher' story? Well, third time's a charm when it comes to my crazy run-ins with ordinary kitchen appliances.

I had moved just about everything out of the apartment except for the second-string cleaning supplies from deep under the sink. It came time to run that last load of dishes that had been in the sink for, well... a while. Anyways, ahem...

So I finally used that off-brand mail-order 'dish detergent' that someone had given me in ancient times. I always kept it around as a back-up in case I ran out of the real stuff. Even though it said 'extra concentrated' I put I good helping in the dishwasher. I then left to run some errands while the machine ran. Luckily I went back in to grab something because it didn't take long for the LAUNDRY DETERGENT to suds up and flow onto the floor. Go. Me.

Update

Oh goodness. So much has happened. Last Monday Courtney called me and told me that roommate that was supposed to be here for the summer up and left over the weekend with nothing but a note on the counter. Courtney IM'd me around one, by five o'clock I had all of my furniture at the new place. By the next day I had most clothes, books, and things over here. The roommates are fantastic, the house is superb, and the six foot wide window looking out over the backyard gives me all the sunshine my little heart could desire.

Wednesday we 'picked up' our patients for Thursday clinical. We went to the hospital at three, dug through the charts, gleaned information and the five of us in my rotation came back to my house and worked on our clinical paperwork. I was up until 2:00 looking up drugs, analyzing lab reports, writing a careplan, and eating pizza (very important part of the process). Going through the chart was fascinating. I got to see how lab reports will correlate with each other and how they can be used to diagnose. I got to see very clearly the effects of lifestyle on one's health as aging occurs. Cool stuff.
The next morning we were at the hospital at 6:30 for pre-conference where the professor picks over our work and asks all about the information we found. By 8:30 we were on the floor. Three of us had one patient. He was the nicest, most patient, most easy-going man I could ever imagine being in a hospital. It was such a joy to work with such a pleasant patient on my first clinical. My classmates and I worked very well together and got things done quickly, effectively and with little fuss. The whole experience was very calm and will be one that I rely on to get me through the rough days that I am sure to come with clinicals.

AND THEN

Wesley came to visit me. We had a very busy but simply wonderful weekend. We went to a wedding on Saturday. It was a very nice wedding in a beautiful church but it did offer us a chance to notice some things that we don't want to happen at our wedding (oh, did I just say that?). For one, there was a very harsh woman with a clipboard standing at the church door directing people on when they should walk down the aisle. It was extremely unattractive. Then there was the industrial strength camera crew and the photographer with the clicky-noise turned on. Eesh. But when you are busy coordinating flowers to dresses to tuxes to hair styles to ring cushions to church colors I guess there will be little things that slip through the cracks. I just hope that my wedding will be personal and not look like something out of a catalog. And I plan on having a bang-up reception.
Sunday we went down to the coast and visited Wesley's dad and stepmom for Father's Day. We went to church with them and then had yummy po-boy's for lunch. I simply love this couple and always enjoy visiting with them. After that we stopped by Wesley's mom for a quick hello and then came home to start the barbecue. My dad and my brother came down and Wesley cooked some crazy-good steaks for all of us. The roommates were here too. I love having a full house and having the three main men of my life together. There were several times during the night when I just stepped back and watched for a second and let the happiness wash over me.

I've had a very blessed week and I hope you all have as well.

Wesley

Wesley is coming to visit me in a week. It is so sweet of him to take time off from work and drive down here just to see me for a few days. We are going to go to a wedding of a high school friend of his while he is here. It will be our first wedding to attend together. The thing I am most looking forward to is dancing at the reception. I love to dance but it's not really Wesley's favorite thing.

It's when he does little things like dance with me or let me cook squash that I know he really loves me. I hope that he knows how much I love him. We've been together for so long now, I don't think there is anything or anyone that could destroy our love for each other. It's a wonderful comfort to know that we have a hardy connection and fondness for each other that will keep us going long after other relationships die away.

Another thing I love about our relationship is that we enjoy doing so many of the same things. We have the best times hiking, doing photography, reading to each other, cooking for each other, and simply being together. It has been a joy to grow together and learn so many amazing things about Wesley over the past four years. I truly believe that we have something special and I'm a lucky girl. I guess the point I'm trying to make is that I LOVE YOU WESLEY AND I CAN'T WAIT TO SEE YOU!! XO!