I saw The Princess and the Frog today. AND I LOVED IT

( Here is why... )

On a side note it was two degrees the other night. TWO!!! It has been too cold this past week to even snow! At the same time it does make the house feel much more cozy.

AND THE CHRISTMAS TREE GOT DECORATED TODAY. I WILL BE BACK WITH PICTURES. now if Chester will just leave the silly thing alone...

Also, tomorrow is my first day on my own in the new unit. Wish me luck!!!!

Having a whole week off brings a host of revelations.

1)Having to stay up all night three nights in a row= finding German soap operas on the internet= discovering homosexual storylines on said soap operas= developing a severe soap opera addiction+ having severe time of the month issues+ completely running out of monetary funds= getting a whole lot of nothing done. What can I say, apparently I have no self control.

2)Washing big dogs in the middle of November= a whole lot of cold and a broken shampoo bottle.

3)There is no where near as much Sulu/Chekov fanfiction as there should be.

4)My computer sits in the coldest part of the house.

5)Working two night shifts in a row also leads to the development of insomnia which I have not been able to shake this past week.

6) I am back to work tomorrow. For another three twelve-hour days in a row. Yuck. I hate getting up before 5 in the morning. HATE, HATE, HATE!!!!!
( Onto pets and mailboxes!!! )

Happy Thanksgiving everyone! I hope you all enjoyed good times and food with your families. In the spirit of the Holidays I am going to start my own little meme. Which all are welcome to participate in but of course not required.

Five things I am grateful for-

1)My family. Because even though they have the ability to cause me extreme aggravation. The truth is, I love them very much, and my life without them would be incredibly empty.
2)My education. This has opened my mind to great things. I continue to grow each day because of it. I will continue to grow until my metaphorical head crashes though the ceilings and passes the clouds to the furthest reaches of space.
3)My job. In times like this having a steady income is a true and wonderful blessing.
4)My friends. Even though there are not very many of them, I am grateful for the insight and variety each of them bring into my life. And this includes people on my flist.
5)And lastly I am grateful for Gene Roddenberry. Who created the characters of Sulu and Chekov. That I read having sex together. Pretty much every day. Consistently. And it makes me very, very happy.

I hope every one had a wonderful Thanksgiving.

Well I made though my two night shifts with minimal difficulty. It was odd being at work on the totally opposite side of the day. I did like the slower pace of the night shift. There were less doctors and families to deal with. I may consider making this a permanent thing. Plus the pay is six dollars more.

Also I put an IV in by myself!!! On my first try!! I picked the vein and everything! Nobody was looking over the shoulders and walking me though the steps. The best part was that puppy slid right in. No difficulties at all. I left that room skipping with joy, no joke.

Went shopping for the rest of Thanksgiving dinner today. I am always excited to eat good food.

Now I have no work until next Monday. Woo-hoo!!!!!

I have made to five o'clock in the morning mountain time. Woo-hoo! Only two hours left and I can go to bed. So far I have kept myself up by watching yaoi anime and wrapping Christmas and birthday presents way earlier than I usually do. And this is all natural energy; no stimulants for me!!!

Spent Monday through Wednesday working 12- hour day shifts at the new job. It was good, but crazy busy. I did a lot of things I haven't done since nursing school. Still haven't worked with chest tubes or PCA pumps yet; and those are what concern me the most. I did get to insert one IV...and fail. However, there are other nurses on the floor who also struggle with placing them so I am not alone! That makes me feel a little better about it. Still though practice, practice, practice. I just wish that practice didn't have anything to do with sticking needles ineptly into other people. :(

Finished The Lucky Bones.
Tomorrow night is my first night shift ever! I've been preparing myself for past last few days. I'm going until 0700 today! Woo-hoo!

Tomorrow is my first day on the new unit. I'm nervous. I really hope this works out.

I am in the process of deep cleaning my room and probably got about 2% of it done today. Oh well, at least I'll never be bored. In between my books, Netflix, my fanfic, and cleaning I always have something to do.

I started reading The Lovely Bones yesterday in preparation for the movie coming out next month. I'm about halfway through, its pretty quick reading. It is really gripping and quite excellent. I'll have more to say about it once I am finished.

Also, tomorrow is my first of three 12-hour shifts in a row. So I won't see y'all until I get done with that. Blegh.

Wish me luck everyone!

It is officially wintertime now. With the snow and the freezing cold weather. My feet are so cold!

In other news I am now addicted to this song.

So today was my last day on the Rehabilitation Unit. Leaving has left me with...mixed feelings. This was the unit I learned to really be a nurse on. I had preceptors who taught and guided me all throughout this past year. One in particular. She taught me so much and working on a floor without her fills me with something I can only describe as dread. I grew so much and so many people helped me along the way. I'm really leaving my safety zone here. Then I have to remind myself of the reasons I'm leaving. Yes, I learned a lot. Yes, I loved most of the people who work there. But I don't like a lot of the bullshit I have to put up with. The awful people who are there for months at time. The high stress mornings of getting people dressed and fed. Some days were just truly awful. Also, I feel I am ready for highly acute patients. This floor will open an area of nursing I can become experienced in. I feel it is essential for me to have this growth. Still, this unknown territory is foreboding.

Working at this unit has been a great blessing in my life. The opportunities to work with ventilated patients and become quite the expert on tracheostomy care has been wonderful.

I woke up yesterday with a twinge in my back. Went to work for one of those wonderful 12-hour shift (which actually equal out to 14 all things considering) and it progressed to a THROBBING. I felt the only way I could convey the actually THROBBING was to capitalize the sucker. Seriously though, after all the lifting of patients, rolling of patients, transferring of patients, and walking quickly down the hallways that slight ache turned into a OMG AN ALIEN IS ABOUT TO POP OUT OF MY BACK!!!!  I got home and took some Ibuprofen and was able to sleep. Woke up this morning and it had turned back into the original ache. Though if I stand for too long it starts to twinge a bit more. So today is going to be a day for resting I think. Prepare myself for working the next two days. I think if doesn't get better in the next couple of days I will have to go to the doctor. But still, I can't afford to take the time off unfortunately. We'll see how it goes. 

In other news training kittens is frustrating and nearly impossible. ARGH!!! At least the dog does what he is told. Sometimes. And somebody peed in my slipper today. Not happy about that at all.

Off to find a fun new mood theme to go with the cool new journal! Wish me luck!

Spent the morning gardening in the front yard. Missionaries from my mother's church came to help us, it was really nice of them. Raked more leaves. And then some more. And then some more. After spending hours in the last month raking leaves our total bag count has come to close to twenty. Two weeks ago when we raked the front yard which was right under the tree our total bag count was FOURTEEN! Weeded some and placed rocks in the yard  to look aesthetically pleasing. Its a work in progress. Next time I post I will post pictures of our mailbox that I finished up a couple of weeks ago. Its pretty coolio.

I also made a new look for my journal. I like it. I just bought an account again. I had let it slide, but now since I am back its time to start it up again. Plans to see the new Christmas Carol movie today with Jim Carrey. I think it will be fun 3-D times.

Went to the zoo today with the family and had great fun! Saw baby tigers, snow leopards, crocodiles, giraffes, and an elephant. The tigers and leopard babies were sleeping, but they were still cute to look at. The elephant was adorable. It was running all over the place! Jumping around on balls, nursing from her mother, rolling around in the dirt. She was so cute and fun. Unfortunately the batteries died in the camera so I don't have pictures to share with you. :(

I even ate a twist ice cream cone. I haven't had one of those is years! It tasted it so yummy.

Hello Everyone! Its been ages since I have since I haunted the sacred halls of LJ(sorry that sounded so corny). I certainly have missed it and everyone on it. However, I am back and y'all can look forward to my incessant ramblings once more! It has certainly been quite the year. It has been a year and half since I graduated college and 14 months since I became a nurse and began my profession. The growth I have experienced has been so vast that it seems like an even longer time.

Currently I am working on a physical rehabilitation unit. I have primarily been working with people who experienced strokes, spinal cord injuries, brain injuries, and ambutations. It is physically and emotionally taxing. It is a very unique rehabilitation unit as it takes people who are on ventilator support for breathing(high injury quadraplegic patients). It has been a unique opportunity to care for ventilated patients. Not every unit is equipped to have such patients. I also know more about bladder and bowel training individuals than I could possibly have learned elsewhere. However in the next two weeks I will be transferring to the Ortopedic Trauma and Specialty Surgery Unit. I will be able to take care of more acute patients and get a broader base before I go back to school. Eventually I will be working with research and thus need to go back to get my Masters and PhD. I look forward to the challenge.

Otherwise things are strained at home. My mother has been out of work since March and I am currently working to support my family. Unfortunately there is a large amount of debt to pay. Between that and the mortgage plus all other necessities things are extremely tight. Sometimes I feel I could work all the time and there still would not be enough money left. Its...discouraging. The house is cluttered and messy. Mom is too ill to really clean and my sister is just not mentally capable. My days off I try, but its not enough to really keep it clean. Working and cleaning seem to be all my life has come down to these days. I feel like I'm living the life of a 44 year old rather than that of a woman in her early twenties. It was always difficult for me to make friends and socialize, and I feel that it is just getting harder.

I don't hear from my close friend here. I have seen her only once this past month. I know she is struggling, but she never returned my calls or let me know how she is doing. I feel hurt and confused. I am trying to be understanding, but I feel a little lost without her.

The animal family still continues to flourish. The feline count is currently at ten with the canine count remaining at one. We have lost three cats in the past year. Our young cat Kyo got hit by a car, seeing his frozen body still continues to haunt me. Our old Snowball died last April, we lost him to thyroid cancer. I had had him since I was 8-years old. Sometimes I catch myself looking for him and thinking I see him coming down the road. Then I remind myself he is gone and relive the hurt. We had  young cat named Lynx that disappeared about two months ago. Gone without a trace. I must confess I didn't particularly like him very much, but still. Its hard not knowing what happened to him. Jane and Chester joined us shortly after Lynx went missing. Someone had seen my mom crying at one of the pounds when she was searching for him. They left them in box on the porch with a note asking use to take care of them. It was...surprising. Jane is named after Agatha Christie's Jane Marple. She is a muted calico with light green eyes. The most beautiful cat I have evern seen. Chester is orange and white, somewhat plain looking but incredibly loving and sweet. They adore each other. I have never seen anything like it. Jane is older so they are not litter mates. Jane was recently fixed to prevent their love from bearing any fruit. I was a little sad. They would have had lovely babies.

Wow long post! I plan on really putting an effort into posting and being a regular here at LJ. I hope to reconnect with people here. Maybe spend a little time away from home it my own little way. Expect to hear more from me!

 My test is getting closer and my stress level just keeps getting higher and higher. If there were boggarts I think at the moment mine would be this test. I am getting better at the practice tests. The last one I took I got a 81%. Up ten percent from when I started. Is just so hard. I had to work all this week so I didn't get much studying done. These next two weeks are going to be though. I have made up a strict schedule for myself. I even scheduled breaks for myself!

Its pretty cloudy here today, I really hope that it rains. Our lawn needs it terribly. The sprinklers broke and we haven't had the time or money to really do anything about it. The weeds are taking over. Some of them are blooming. Its terrible. I cringe everytime I drive into our driveway. 

I have three interviews set up for next week. One on a Women's and Children Unit, the NICU, and a orthopedic trauma unit. Its going to be interesting. I'm looking forward to making my decision and really getting started.

Today was a day that was filled with much awesomeness. Got up at 6:00 to do a final studying for my last nursing final. Took that at 8:00. Not totally sure how it went. However, I have so much cushiony space I am not horrible worried about it. Still I don't want to fail my last final.

Had a potluck party with my clinical group where much good food was had. Ate sandwiches, chips, chicken, salad, some tomato and mozzarella thing, salad, brownies, oatmeal cookies, and drank lemonade. Good stuff.

Then came the best part. It was senior streak day,  which I ran outside to watch. I was standing in the quad so got pretty close to the action. So totally cool.My nursing buddy, pele_amelika ,took part in the ceremonies. It was great! One of the guys did kartwheels through the quad. His penis was just flopping all over the place. Much fun was to be had by all.

Then ran to get my clinical evaluation where my teacher said some very nice things about me. Left me feeling all smart and happy! She told me I should definitely go to grad school one day. She also told me I while I would do really good on a hospital floor it would almost be a waste of my brain(not that on the floor hospital nursing doesn't require brainy people; that shit is hard!). I have a high aptitude for researching(she called it a gift) and she encouraged me to follow my dream of going into forensics. She also said that my evidence project was perfect and is going to give to the unit manager to support changes in hospital policy. It was cool. So a B+ in my 9 credit Nursing 437 class. I am pretty happy. She said I grew a lot, especially since I had had such limited experience before the quarter.

Then took my last undergraduate final ever! My addiction and drug studies class ended with a moderately challenging open book test.

I then took the opportunity to veg and read fanfiction and watch The Simpsons. Went to the pancake feed at 9:00- a study break put on by the school where you go and eat pancakes. I had two chocolate chip pancakes and 4 strips of bacon. Muchos yumminess.

Now I will take a shower and veg some more!

Yesterday I had my last classes in nursing school. Just one more test before I graduate. I'm trying to study for it but it is hard to focus. I am powering through though. I am bit unsure as to how the test will look tomorrow which makes it difficult to study.

Tomorrow my senior project group is going out to celebrate the %100 we got on our project. Yeah! It was on undocumented immigrants and health care access in the U.S.. I learned a ton about what is really going on. Let me just say the media is taking numbers and blowing them totally out of context. Typical media behavior.

May went by so quickly! I cannot believe that it is June already. Life is pretty exciting right now. Clinicals are done. Work is done. All that is left is one more project, a few more classes, and a final test. Then its on to reviewing for the NCLEX and GRADUATION! I have my cap and gown ready to go. One more weekend before graduation. It just really blows my mind. I am almost done with college! Then its on to having a career. This is scary stuff!

I also have to start packing things up at some point this week. I am glad my presentation is on the first day. That way I will have all week to focus on the stuff that I need to get done.

Clinicals were so intense this quarter. I experienced a lot of growth. Ready to take on patient care by myself? Probably not. But I am a lot closer than I was two months ago. Now if I can just get over my innate awkwardness around people and doing new things I will be so much better off. One thing that has been accomplished during this clinical? Mucus and fecal issues....all resolved. Seriously.

LETS GIVE A WARM WELCOME TO THE MONTH OF MAY!!!!

THE BEST MONTH OF THE YEAR!!

Spring is in full bloom and my birthday is THREE weeks away. Then GRADUATION is three weeks after that!!

So I am having some weird roommate issues. I live with three other girls and in the beginning it was great. However, after I got back from Belize there was some friction. Usually I can just ignore it because I am a pretty easy-going person and it take a lot to bug me. Lately one of my roommates has a sister who has been having serious trouble with her roommate. So sometimes her sister sleeps on the couch. At first, this didn't bug me but its been going from occasionally to frequently. At least once a week, sometimes more. Now, its not that she sleeps over that bugs me, she just has bad sleeping habits. Meaning, she will stay up super late watching TV, 2-3 in the morning, and then sleeps in til noon. I am a morning person. I get up early, and I can't really do anything in the kitchen with her sleeping on the couch. To top it off she then watches Friends, which one of my other roommates has on DVD, all afternoon. Today she was watching it until around 4:00. This was just annoying and distracting. I like to go out and spread my stuff on the kitchen table. It gets me away from my computer and the school library, which I get sick of being in sometimes.

I am a pretty passive aggressive person so I have a hard time with confrontations. So today I just mentioned that her sister was here until 4:00 watching TV and that it was distracting. She didn't say anything but I hope she got the message. When my other roommate mentioned the sleeping in until noon she just laughed it off and said "Why doesn't that surprise me". She doesn't ask us if its okay that her sister comes over. I honestly wouldn't mind if she got up and out of the apartment at a reasonable hour. Its just so annoying and something I really don't need right now. If it happens again I am just going to be direct and ask her to make sure her sister is gone by 10 or 11.

On top of it I kinda feel like I am being bitchy.