First things first...

I really should put updating down somewhere on my list of things to do.

Okay - end of peds! Sim went really well. I was the bedside nurse for one of the scenarios and I felt like I knew what I was doing (kind of) and it wasn't too intimidating having someone watch me though a 2-way mirror. It was strange, though, getting to make all the decisions that we can only suggest when we're on the floor and then actually implementing an intervention (like medications or oxygen). I thought I was super great because I made a Barbie sticker covered incentive spirometer! Anyway- PICU! Jack and I were there all day and even past our shift's end! We went on rounds with the residents to see how care planning worked. It was neat since the nurse assigned to the patient we rounded on sat in as much as she could throughout the conversation and interjected with updates or suggestions. It definitely showed me that I didn't want to be a doctor since all they thought about was the right med dosing and vent settings. They really didn't take into consideration anything about the stress on the family or the child if they were old enough to communicate that. Kind of a bummer, really. So then we went to the PCICU (cardiac side) and it was really neat. Unfortunately there had been a code on the floor, so everyone was a little on edge and upset about that, but my nurse was fabulous about teaching me about hypoplastic left ventricle syndrome, which my little patient had. He had his chest still opened, but covered with a gortex dressing, to make sure that if he needed to swell after surgery (a shunt to redirect blood flow) his heart wouldn't get over loaded. So, after waiting all day, the surgeon came up at the end of our shift and decided to close the chest. Of course, I wanted to watch and had already asked if I could come back the following day to see the closure if it happened then. IT WAS AWESOME. I saw, in the flesh, a tiny, 10 day old repaired heart and little tiny pink lungs working inside of a baby. WHAT?! It was so amazing to see what his little body could do!

So, pretty much, that made my life.

Psyc is okay so far, but a little too much talk for me. I'm on a general adult floor so we can see any type of mental illness at any time. We had a few borderline personality disorders and bipolar manics last week, so time will tell what we'll see on Friday since we have sim on Saturday. I had a really great patient this past week who had no reservations about any part of her illness. She vividly described her delusions, hallucinations and behaviors. It was kind of incredible to listen to. She told me later that I should be a psyc nurse (an NP haha) because I was a good listener, organized and very bright. She was a lot better than when she had come on to the unit, so I think it was a good way to bring me into the rotation. I'm not totally sold on it, but I guess it's really only 7 more days on the floor.

I'm prepared to do a lot of busy work now that I'm in psyc (oh the perils of previously being a psyc major) so my plan is to get it done as soon as possible. I have an assessment paper due on Saturday or Monday and a care plan due after Thanksgiving, but I would really like to get them both done by Wednesday or Thursday since I'm doing them on the same patient. We do weekly journals (yay.) and have to do a write up for our alternative site and then a group support meeting. I've already been to AA for psychopharm, so I'd really like to try another group. We'll see how that goes again.

Finally time for bed! It was a great weekend, though, even if I did spend entirely too much money on clothes (some of them for psyc!) and brunch. But hey, there are only so many all you can eat/all you can drink mimosa brunches in the world, right?

Oops.

So apparently all I want to do when I have free time is go on adventures, watch movies or play by play on MLB.com (Really? What? Girls like baseball?). Pretty much I've left peds in the dust at this point which is super sad. We have SIM Wednesday and then I'm in PICU Thursday, so I don't even go back to my floor! The nurses were more than awesome and were great at teaching us what we needed to know. A week from today I'll have taken my last peds test and will be (not so excited but) ready to start psyc. Making a sticker hunt in an isoltation room is much more fun than reliving psychopharm and abnormal, but we all have to pay our dues I guess.

Our Halloween costumes were amazing on Friday! The Hocus Pocus witches were the center of attention :) I think Cassie's costum for Sarah came out the best since she actually looked like her, but the three of us as a unit were actually recognizable. Cassie and I got crafty and stitched things together (she made a skirt while I added extra sleeve and skirt bits) which was really rewarding... except for when I sewed it to myself. I blame that on my distress during Game 1. After adding those things on to the costume, though, I really should make time for the rest of my crafts! It was relaxing once I was focusing on my task. It somehow still seems easier to unwind with an otter pop and Mean Girls...

Wine tour last weekend was fantastic! I'm so happy I went because a) I love foliage and b) I love wine. We had great weather and lots of fun tasting different types of wine, some of which I purchased even though I can't pronounce (I'm not made to speak German). After we got back from wine-central, we went out to watch the Bears game (epic loss) and have pizza. The pub crawl with the men's rugby team(s) last Saturday made me want pizza more than ever after drinking wine and eating weird crackers all day.

3 weeks until Thanksgiving - yippie!

I am a delinquent

Last week was fun - I went on a NICU adventure! Each and every one of those little babies are so cute you can't help but just love them. I was able to assess and feed the kids that my co-assigned nurse was assigned (which was awesome - she was a great teacher) and I got really comfortable in our pod. It's funny that they call them pods, but kind of accurate. There are six babies max in a pod with three(ish) nurses to a pod, or at least that's what I saw when I was there.

Other than that, I've been plugging along in class and kind of counting the days until Thanksgiving. It's not so bad here, but it would've been beneficial to live alone. I am dreaming of such a time in my life. I feel like a two year old trying to assert my independence (sometimes). Once I figure out where I want to live and where I want to work, I think it will be a little less overwhelming. I'm going to tackle this issue on Friday with my Women's Health professor - woo!

I dragged my friend to Zumba yesterday and I think it made us better friends... if that was possible. We were in the back, totally lost and looking dumb but it was really fun! All of the lunging made my ACLs cringe (really, I could feel it). I think I'll be going barefoot next Monday - my arches were on fire during all of the tippy toe running/ponying. Not pleasant. It was a big class though! The goal for tomorrow, if this paper gets done, is to go to yoga and unwind a little. 20 minutes of meditation sounds peachy to me!

Alumni = fabulous

Who knew the class of '59 was so much fun? It was really great to hang out with a bunch of classmates that are still close even after 50 years. I think the secret, which one of them told me, is that they get together every year and have done so since graduation. It's awesome! Some of the women that came even ditched nursing after 10 or 15 years and do something totally different now. They all looked at us like we were crazy for getting our degrees in a year, though. (Rightfully so - we are a little nuts). But overall, it was an awesome experience to have while I have been freaking out about finding a job/choosing a specialty and generally having no idea where I really want to work.

After a series of really bad, not very fun runs, I finally had a rewarding one today(!). I calibrated my sensor earlier last week and discovered, much to my horror, that it was .22 miles off. Not cool! I went through the five stages of grief (with denial being the shortest since it was in front of my face) which probably fueled the bad runs along. But no more! I decided to do a time workout today and get my mind off the miles. Granted, I'm not going very far, but I have the race on Saturday to get pumped for a I want to do my best. There must have been a crew race today because the park I ran through was full of people. That was nice, especially since I decided to pick a different route than I usually go. My irrational fear of being ambushed on the trail was quelled for at least a little bit because of the crowd. It was also my first day running in the legitimate cold. I think I did okay, but the rumor is that it's supposed to snow this week and I'm not sure if I'm ready for that. The cold will be my biggest obstacle on Saturday morning, that's for sure. I'm going to try to go a little faster the rest of the week since I've been taking it easy post-horrendous cold. The only way to go is up at this point!

Woohoo!

So on my last day of OB I pretty much did everything possible there is to do on that service and then left for home. I saw another vaginal birth, put in a foley and saw another c section. It was pretttty neat. I liked lactation a lot and used some of the stuff I learned from them with the new moms that were trying to breastfeed. I felt helpful!

I had my first full day in peds today. It was really nerve wracking at the beginning since I wasn't sure what I would see. I had a fabulous little girl, though, with Down syndrome that had just had open heart surgery a week ago. It was great to go with her and her mom to see her echo and then have her be able to go home without any tubes! She was a total sweetie :) We had met a cute little guy the day before during our short orientation on the unit who was 8 and on continuous seizure monitoring so he was alert and chatty. He totally made my day! We played with him, gave him stickers and he showed us all his gift cards he had collected. This kid made me LOVE peds. I think my favorite age will be school age since they're chatty and want to show you everything that they can do. It was probably a good experience for him too because most of us had finished up with our own patients and had time to play with him in the afternoon. Given the chance, I'm sure he would've had us stay all day to play!

Alumni weekend starts tomorrow so I'm going to try to go to the lecture they're having on global health, and I've also volunteered to go to a dinner at the Roc science center Saturday night. It gives me a chance to dress up, have snacks and maybe make some connections. I am still freaked out since I have no idea where I want to work and what floor I want to be on (but peds seems pretty good) so maybe they could give me a couple pointers. We will see!

Woohoo!

At 3 pm on Thursday, I am done with OB! Yippie!!! I'm much more excited for peds, even if the thought of angry/confused/scared/over protective parents isn't totally appealing. Babies are cool, but they're not prone to do much (but I do appreciate their tiny diapers). Even more exciting, I will be going home after clinical is over! We have Monday off and it will be more than fantastic to go home and not have to cook for a couple days. Sometimes you just have to get out of where you are.

I think that since I am naturally a wanderer/explorer, it's hard to stay in one place and develop a routine for me. I feel like the monotony is getting to me and it's 5 weeks in... trouble ahead for sure. This could be because of the insanely repetitive nature of OB. It's awesome, really, but just slow. And quiet. And the exact opposite of me. I think that if I took a job here all would be fine (probably because I'd finally live alone), but I'm itching for a new place to explore at the moment. I didn't do my run today since I went to Brugger's with Cassie and Mary after class and then had to take my last exam and now it's pitch dark out (plus wind and rain), so that might be it. I don't know, though. Since I can't figure out where I actually want to explore at the moment, I'll try to practice my patience and let it come to me. Cue yoga breathing...

I've been a bad blogger...

This week was more than challenging, academically and otherwise. I thought I had learned that pesky value of patience, but now I'm not so sure. I became/still am a little frustrated with classes and with other people that I must interact with while in Rochester. Most of the time, I'm able to get past this stuff through Hulu, Grey's Anatomy and some BFF chat time with Cas. Those didn't do the trick this week and I have no explanation as to why. Needless to say, I have spent as much time as possible sleeping. I do enjoy, though, a rousing round of karaoke. Thankfully, there's a pocket of people that can cuddle with me and pull me out of any sort of funk that I've had here so far. Also, I think actually getting out of sweats helped moved things along, but I will give them credit where credit is due.

I tried a new trail this week and I like it a lot since it's flat and not asphalt. At the beginning of this running excursion, I wouldn't have expected to incorporate exploring into my runs (I'm a little paranoid), but I'm very happy I did. I'll probably try to tackle the trail to campus again sometime this week since last time it left me with something to be desired. It's those hills that are killer for that one and they're not even that big! I think it's more of the spacing of them on the trail, or the fact that I was so focused on having to go 4 miles that nothing could be enjoyable. We shall see!

Leaves are finally starting to change colors and it's been the best kind of dreary autumn weather for the last couple of days. It's much more enjoyable now to wear a sweater for a purpose instead as a substitute coat. I'm looking forward to all of the snow in the winter and hopefully the quiet time that will follow it. I'm a fan of summer, don't get me wrong, but I like peaceful things... and this past summer was far from peaceful. I'm excited to drive home Thursday and see some of the leaves at home too. It will be fantastic to get out of here for at least a few days.

Procrastination.

Not really feeling this case study right now (pregnant adolescent... it still weirds me out, honestly, our girl is 14, has had chlamydia and has MULTIPLE partners. :/ ) and luckily Molly sent me the best new website ever. It's called fupenguin.com and I am already in love. As one who likes cute animals but is done reading about the water skiing squirrel in the news, or whatever talent they happen to have now, I was totally taken with the silly commentary following the pictures. Perfect laugh after getting deep into this serious case study.

My mom and baby today were so cute!! They were both really mellow and had no problem with me doing assessments on them. I think if I were to work in OB, it would have to be with mother baby. I felt kind of useful today and like I knew what I was talking about. Plus, my mom was chatty and just really nice all round, so I wasn't uncomfortable at all. I think with each rotation I'll have to learn to ignore my instructor all over again during my skills demonstration. I was so used to my previous instructor watching me that I wasn't afraid to ask her questions during my assessments or anything. Granted, these are shorter rotations so it's harder to get used to an instructor in 10 times, but I think I am almost there. Too bad my last day on mother-baby is tomorrow. Oh well. Clinical is definitely what you make of it, though. My nurse today was super stressed out about some botched orders, so instead of doing my case study in the back room, I wandered with her and found out how you get that kind of issue resolved. I had checked in with my mom before I went on the excursion, and since her husband and other son were coming to visit, I wasn't going to be bugging her anyway. It was interesting. My nurse was definitely more than willing to help, which was fabulous, but it was nice to know that by running her new admission some ice and juice, I was making her day a little easier. :)

I did my run today, got a GIANT blister on my pinky toe (God only knows how since I WRAPPED IT after I saw the little preview blister after clinical) and am looking forward to not doing a run tomorrow. 5 miles on Friday. It's like D-Day... but obviously without a beach landing. Speaking of, who would've thought I'd miss beach days in September? (Kidding. We knew it was coming. It's like I'm not even a Northeasterner anymore. It's pathetic.)

Hm...

So, after I unconvinced myself after convincing myself I had a subinguinal (sp?) hernia, I did my run. Instead of running the full four, I did 3.5, which isn't bad, and I didn't feel horrific either. The ice pack is in the freezer and will probably be ready to do it's job when I'm done writing. I mailed out my entry form for the race on Oct 17. At this moment in time, I could actually care less if anyone does it with me or comes to watch. This is pretty much just for me (oh, I know - selfish much? Whatever. "Running" is an individual "sport". Aside - I'm not sure if running is actually a sport. Right now it's above cheerleading, but still living in the gray area. I am a traditional "sport-ist" that there have to be points to be scored in a game. Granted, that makes curling and shuffle board sports...)


This week I'm in mother baby both days and the plan is to get my assessment down. I've been using my visualization technique (hokey, but kind of effective) now especially since we don't have that many opportunities to practice. I'm getting more comfortable with it, but I am by no means an expert. I don't expect to become one during the rest of my time on the floor, but I think I've experienced a lot of valuable things. Last week I got to teach my mom about SIDS, something that is imperative to know about. It was really neat for me since I had never felt like I had actually taught my patients anything, although some little something must've stuck for someone. This, though, was an opportunity that jumped out and screamed TEACH HER! So I did. :) Obviously in this situation, like most others, the patient will do what they want when they go home, but it seemed like she understood what I was talking about.

We heard some sad stories about still births that happened over the weekend. I really hope that I don't have to see that before I leave since I am really not a super great dealer with death. I would probably want to hug my patient instead of talking it through like we've been learning about. We read a blog written by a mom who had a still born baby and it was totally heart breaking. :( It makes you realize that there are a lot of risks with pregnancy being in this class, and after feeling the cervical dilation models today, I'm not sure if I reeeeally want to give birth. Maybe I just need time to forget all of this scary stuff. Anyway, I won't be taking happy healthy babies for granted anymore.

I did it!

I registered for a 5K in Rochester (ok, technically Greece) on October 17th! My goal is to crack 30 minutes, which I've gotten close to doing in my 3 miler's recently, but I'm hoping to be running a consistent 30-ish minute 5K by race time. I have about a month, which is including long runs, so I know I'll be ready. I'm really excited! I think it's good to have this little race as a goal for me since it's not too far, far enough away that I'll be really confident at race time, and a fun thing to me to do to celebrate my new found ... "joy"?... of running. Besides, I've had this goal since last year of doing a half marathon, and while I'm NOWHERE close to being at that level, this is like my little stepping stone to it. Plus, I have no excuses since I'm supposed to do 5 miles that day. Three miles is getting easier for me every time I do it, even if I have blisters/angry intestines/crazy iTouch issues. Anyway, at the very least it will be a memory of this year and of my first fall on the East Coast in 4 years. Good enough for me!

I liked my first day on mother/baby a lot. I got to see 2 discharges and then a mom who had just given birth in the morning get transferred onto our unit. I was really REALLY nervous about doing my mom assessment, so nervous I pretty much forgot what I was doing, but my clinical instructor saved the day. Now that I've seen it done twice, I'm really confident I can do it tomorrow. I've been reviewing what I have to do in my head over and over all day, and now that I saw my instructor do the assessment I know what she's looking for. The plan is that I have the same patient tomorrow as I did at the end of today (she was so sweet) so I think that will also facilitate my assessment experience. Now if my clinical instructor didn't make me so nervous...

I also saw a circumcision today. Let's just say I'm not jumping onto the midwife bandwagon just yet after seeing that procedure. Apparently, babies can sleep right through it. Not mine. This kid wasn't even quiet after we gave him sugar water, but for good reason! Sure it's numb, but you're all exposed. It must be a least a little uncomfortable! Poor little baby :( Maybe it will get easier to watch the more I see them, but this whole procedure freaked me out a little bit, even though there's not a lot of blood at all. Being totally honest, I was MUCH more enamored by the c-section, with blood/uterus/stitches/staples and all, than this procedure. Not my Achilles heel by any means (I'm still searching for that), but just not something I would want to perform every day that I'm on the floor.

So during my FOUR MILE RUN (!) today, I thought over and over about my assessment. At some points, I even forgot I was running since I was so freaked out about feeling a uterus again. But it was a good run. I was a little annoyed at first because my little voice only told me how far I had gone every mile and not every half like I was used to, but then I began to pretend to embrace it. Hopefully I'm not super sore tomorrow since I have to run 3. Woohoo!

Being a 7-7 baby, I think it's fantastic I got to meet a little baby that will grow up being a 9-9-09. I think those with triple numbers in their birthdays have a special kinship since someone always makes a comment about your date of birth. Mine, usually, is, "You must be so lucky!" Yes, I suppose I am, but I'd like to attribute at least part of my "luck" to my parents and to my own brain, thank you very much. Geeze. It's like people think you're born a smarty pants or something these days... :P

So Thursday I got to see a c-section, clean up an itty bitty newborn, give them a shot of vitamin K and dress and swaddle them all before they were an hour old :) I like OB so far. All of the nurses are nice, even though the floor can be pretty hectic. The day before, when we were at orientation, there were 17 births. For the next two weeks, I'll be on the postpartum side with the moms that have given birth within the last few days. There I'll get my own patient, hopefully for both days we're on the floor, and learn how to do a newborn and postpartum mom assessment. I did get to use a teeny weeny stethoscope, probably the size of a dime, on Thursday to listen to the baby's heart rate. It's hard to count! Hopefully during my two weeks I'll also learn how to give a baby a bath and become a diaper changing pro. Either way, babies make me happy even if they're screaming at the top of their lungs. If they're screaming, they're usually healthy! :)

I had two good days of 3 milers and I bump up to 4 on Wednesday. I 'officially' registered for the Nike+ Human 10k so now I feel like I have to do it. Luckily, I'm scheduled to do a 6 miler the day before the race, so I'll just switch my runs and do about a quarter mile extra on 10.24. I'm kind of attached to my daily(ish) run now. They'll be getting longer, but I think as long as I'm planning for it, I'll be fine. Eventually I might have to move indoors because my timing after clinical. Now it's not so bad, but if I get out late it could be horrendous. Plus, who wants to get up at 4 am to do a run in pitch darkness? Not I. I'll also have to see how long I last when it gets cold out. My running shoes are great, but they're mesh all along the top and sides. They breathe a lot better than my previous shoes, but at the same time I get soaked if it's raining. My plan is to do the 10k outside and then maybe move inside to the hospital gym when it gets really nasty. I can't believe I am already talking about running 6.2 miles, but I feel like I can do it! I'm not sure what my next step after that will be, especially since I just kind of am glossing over the 5k race, but I think a half marathon in the spring isn't totally out of the question. It could be my "victory lap". Oh, I'm so funny :)

We got the best present ever today - we didn't have to stay the whole time at orientation! Instead of a 13 hour day (followed by tomorrow which we have to be on the floor at 6:45 am... ugh), we got a normal (for us) one. Our floor has mandatory quiet hours, so the grand plan of splitting into our groups and doing orientation and then going to the floor totally failed. They also said they were being nice to us since we all had to go home and either finish or polish our 15 med cards due tomorrow. I thought I was done with those bad boys last night, but then it got sprung on us this morning that we had to have all possible doses/routes/reasons why our patient would have that drug. Excessive, but it's supposed to make us better at tests/NCLEX/life. We probably won't pass meds this rotation since the moms can give themselves their own medicine, but it's always a possibility.

Tomorrow I'll be in labor and delivery if our schedule stays the same. I'm super excited because I 1) have never seen a live birth (section or vaginal) and 2) I get to look like a big nurse and wear blue scrubs! (!!!!!!!!!!!) The later is probably the more exciting thing for me. So I have to put on my uniform (again) only to have to change once I get to the floor. I'm nervous but pumped for this rotation. I haven't held a baby, much less a VERY newborn, in a long time! At least a couple years I think. Doing my first assessment of a baby will probably be scary, but swaddling I think I'll have down since I tend to wrap myself up like that even now. Maybe I'm a baby in disguise? Something to think about. My clinical instructor is amazing and our "partner" rotation group that comes on after us has a great instructor too. He revealed another secret about Wegmans today - apparently you can print out a shopping list that includes aisle numbers from their website. I might have to use that if I ever venture back to the warehouse Wegmans in Pittsford.

Time to read up on the stages of labor so I can be prepared for tomorrow!

Back to school, back to school

We are officially starting our second third of the program. I had my first women's health lecture today and I think I'll really like that class a lot. Women's health is much more family focused now, especially for labor and delivery, and it will be interesting to see if what we have had to read matches up with how it's put into practice. Clinicals start tomorrow, so hopefully I'll be good at communicating with women in labor and not just patients with every other ailment under the sun - it could be a long 5 weeks if I can't! I was very happy to see all of my friends again after almost 3 weeks of escaping to other parts of New England. It's weird that we're split into two groups now and not always together, but I guess it had to happen at some point.

I have started to legitimately run. For me, it's a big undertaking, but I have a pretty nifty support person who also does not consider herself "a runner" so I feel like I can do it too. I got the Nike+ sensor since our iTouches are already loaded with Nike+ anyway. I need to calibrate it, but the fact that I'm going as far as I plan to when I start the run, and sometimes over my goal, is good enough for me. I started a training plan through the website, so the schedule also helps me do it. It might get harder when I have a long day of clinical, but I have started to find running relaxing... which is scary. I'm sure it's a good thing in the long run (HA! Pun!), but it's a strange concept to think about.

I am sure I'll have more stories by the end of the week. Hopefully all of the babies I get to see are healthy!

Go big or go home.

I have been a poor updater, but that's because life is so great!! :) I LOVE acute care and I have had the best patients I could've ever dreamed of. I've gotten to do a lot of things that I thought I could never do, including (today!) a rectal suppository. I started giving shots yesterday, a current total of 2 have been done, and have been able to tube feed, do trach care (dressing changes and that type of stuff) and I've really improved on therapeutic communication. Part of my improvement with TC is that I have felt a genuine connection with my patients - it was something I had to learn how to separate from any other tie I have forged with another person. To me, it's so COOL that they're letting me help them get to a better place in life. Obviously that doesn't always happen, but that's always the intent and I think I've gotten good at communicating that. I used a trick that my mom got from my great aunt that she used on me when I had a tummy ache when I was little. My patient seemed to appreciate that I was always in her room and that she finally had some human contact that wasn't just about poking and prodding her.

I find what I am doing in clinical is really rewarding. At some point I'll have a bad day, but one of our nurses told us that the important part is that you did the best you could that day for that patient - that's all they really expect of you. Sometimes their families want more, but sometimes their families are more than happy to share their own stories with you. We had a group of 3 sisters this week on the floor - 2 were always with the third one, our patient. One was a retired nurse from the Navy, another was a pharmacist and the third was a bookkeeper. They were more than happy to explain all the things they brought for their sister to have in her room, tell us about the drugs that their sister was taking and how their family is full of doctors and nurses. The patient (the nurse) even called all of us into her room so we could listen to her heart and lungs. They really were the living Golden Girls! I am sure than when I am old and batty (probably with a UTI), Stace-face will be perched near my bed with some ridiculous picture of us, probably the one where she has a pot belly since that is my favorite :)

One of my goals today was to get the nasal feeding tube out of my patient. It had been discontinued since the feeding tube through her belly was approved yesterday, but she hadn't let anyone take it out. She had told me it was irritating to her, so I kind of made it my crusade for the day (especially since I wasn't sure if I could get her constipation cleared up by the end of my shift). I felt like I was pestering my nurse and my instructor to get this thing out, but eventually I pestered enough to get it done before I left. Even though my patient had finally relaxed a little and gotten to sleep before, it was my little victory knowing that I had advocated for her like our instructors keep telling us to do. All I hear is "As a nurse, you are a patient advocate". Well, duh, listen to your student nurse because this is what the patient AND the orders are saying to do! Just because she didn't let someone take it out yesterday at 3 pm doesn't mean that 16 hours later she will still refuse! I am hoping my ability to not blindly follow directions will never leave me - I should just quit nursing if that ever does happen - because if I don't take the time to listen to a patient before I "give up" on them, what's the point of trying to help? It's tough to take the time to get to know every patient you have when you are taking care of 5, but I think that if I know at least 5 things about each patient it would help me in my own practice to keep them human. Some of the charts are unbelievably thick. This person, on paper, is 300 orders deep because of their length of stay within the hospital. If all they are to you is Room 12345, bed A, I don't think you're doing it right. It could just be me. I mean, that's why I chose to do nursing - getting to know and assist a patient in a way that is far beyon medication is what I want to do. They only other way I could see this happening is through counseling or spiritual life, neither of which I am called for (I'm already crazy and I'm a mostly delinquent Catholic).

So that's my soapbox speech about patient care and the essence of nursing. Suuure, I've had a month in the clinical setting. Go ahead and discount my opinion. That is my own moral code that I choose to base my practice off of. I happen to think it's fabulous. Besides, if I just wrote all of that out and didn't believe in it, that'd be kind of silly.

I'm not totally sure how that tangent started, but anyway...

I have some pretty great friends here :) Clearly I can't pick favorites, but my "twin" and the rest of my clinical group are pretty amazing. I like that we all get along well in and outside of clinical, plus we are all trying to support one another. 3 out of 8 played basketball with our resident baller plus about 10 others from our program (!!!!!!!!) on Tuesday, and it was really fun! (I made one basket... pretty sure I am still not a baller. Sorry, Dana.) Kathleen and I hit up the public market Tuesday morning and I picked up some plants to transport home. One is a pink gerenium (however you spell it) and the other one's a daredevil I think. Either way, I feel like a pretty decent granddaughter at this point.

I'm trying really hard not to get my hopes up, but I am pushing for a kitten for my parents. A horrible gift choice? Yes. A rewarding gift choice? YEEEES! I am hoping it's a go, pretty much because I love those little balls of fluff, but we will have to see. I may have won over my mom, but my dad will be a tougher sell I think. It depends on how he is feeling on the day whether or not her really misses our cat. A puppy would be a tougher sell to my mom though. I'll stick with the smaller animal...

Yes, I have an exam tomorrow morning at 8 am. No, I have not studied for it yet. I'm sure it will all be fine in the end.

Secrets, secrets

I made it!! I am really quite happy with my life (even if I am cranky and wish there was a kickboxing class close by, I am still usually happy). My clinical group is fun and I think we have a nice little solidarity going on. I feel like we're probably the coolest group, but I guess everyone's perspective on that would be a little different. Anyway, I like them and they make me happy even if we are all having crap-tastic days. I have a big stack of alcohol wipes on my desk since they just seem to accumulate in my pockets as the days go on. Maybe I'm becoming a germ freak? You would think I'd quit picking at my nails if that was actually the case, but maybe that's a development later on.

So I saw this PostSecret awhile ago that was a list a woman made about the men she knew.
Naturally, I love this. It's clever, kind of hilarious and unexpected.... and I have decided to try my hand at this. I dare you to hazard a guess who I am talking about, but I'll try to be sneaky! (Note: Work in progress... I really do want mine to be clever! Maybe then I will color code them and make them pretty)

• I have never been more excited to never see someone again... except once.
• Our search for Cadbury Eggs was probably one of my favorite nights in college, minus the Strongbow hunt in BevMo.
• You have no idea what you did for me. I probably love you.
• You're kind of awkward. I kind of like it.
• I have way better friends than you ever will.
• For being so "smart," you're kind of pathetic when it comes to living your life.
  
• I missed our big Thanksgiving shebang this year.
  
• While I appreciate your child-like heart from a distance, it was too overwhelming close up.
• You're still a sexist pig.
• Seriously, why do you still call me? I'm confused.
  
• Given the chance, I would legitimately fight you (and win!) - you're not as great as you think you are (at anything!).
• You'd be cute if you had a personality. It is a loss for humanity.

:) That was kind of cathartic.

I am such a delinquent! I always think about writing but then I either nap, go to bed or do work. Or snack, but that's more of a constant struggle. Anyway, we are finished with long term care and I secretly liked it a lot. I spent my last two days on a locked dementia unit and I feel like I learned a lot about communication from my patient. I am very thankful for him :) I can see how working with those patients, though, can be draining. Some of them can become physically and verbally abusive and it's not something they have control over so you know they don't really mean it. I think our last day that wear and tear set in on us, at least the group that was in the back, and we were all a little down :( It was an overall great experience and I am happy that we survived. This week we start in acute care and our floor is a short stay medical-surgical floor. I hope I get to watch a couple procedures! I am sure this will be more fast paced, so I hope I can make the walk home after we're done.

Last week we also finished up two more classes - pathophysiology/pharmacology and genetics. I really liked our patho professor and we get to have her again for case study stuff in our med-surg class (I have it in the spring). We also register for fall classes on Friday, so I met with my advisor today to sign my degree plan. I'm going to try to get the early lab, probably the 8 am, so then I'll make myself go to the gym afterwards. My advisor said it's probably not a bad idea since our days will be long as it is. I have women's health/OB/peds in the fall as well as psyc, so I think that I will have lots of fun with those rotations. I also have met with one of my professors that does pediatric sleep research and I will be working with her for the rest of the year. She's so low key that I'm sure it will be a fun experience even if we don't really get to help with the study itself. I am excited to see what a sleep lab looks like, especially for kids, and learn more about this little pocket of science. She's also been a great resource for me about PhD programs, so I am also very thankful for her :)

[Begin soapbox] We went to the pride parade on Saturday with some of our friends from class and it was really fun! At the end we all got to march in the parade (I guess that's what happens all the time - everyone just joins in at the end) and we turned a corner to find a whole bunch of protestors. I thought I had some idea of what that experience was like, but I was wrong. As a straight person, I was totally offended/shocked/surprised that people so "Christian" would pass such an extreme judgement on another group of people. Kind of reminds me of Paul's letters, those ones that tell women to be quiet and people not to get married unless they have to (you know, the ones no one actually reads?), since at that point Christians were the outcasts of society. I don't know, it seems counter productive to be blatantly judgemental and cruel when you're supposed to be the light of the world. I'm still not totally sure how using Jesus's love as a weapon is one of the cornerstone's of Christianity, but I don't think that's something I'll ever understand. Maybe it is my inner peaceful-love everybody-"hippie" Vermonter. One of the friends I was walking with went up to a protestor holding a sign that said something like "Ask me why you're going to hell" and told him that Jesus loved him. My personal favorite is a photo I saw on a website (maybe Perez Hilton?) that had someone protesting the passage of Prop 8 holding a sign that said, "Jesus said LOVE, bitches!" :) Pretty sure that person was/is right... [end of soapbox]

My transition to my new surroundings hasn't been extremely difficult... except for when I am wandering around trying to figure out why I cannot find the people I used to talk to every day for the last 4 years. Then it gets hard. So I guess that's why God made us smart enough to have cell phones and texting :) There are only a few constants in my day, but I am always glad to have them: breathing, eating, sleeping (even a little) and encouragement from Cassan. :)

I survived my first week of clinicals, although this is a little late. I'm placed at a small long term care facility a few miles away from our house. My unit is half open and half locked down since it houses dementia patients that like to wander (I think I would be one of those if I happen to have dementia). The first day was a lot of orientation stuff and getting used to the facility, but all of our patients are very nice. I have been able to feed a few of our residents (they eat more than I do sometimes!) and have gotten to know a few of their stories. I was on the "open" front end of the unit last week and will be going to the "closed" back half of the unit Wednesday/Thursday this week. My patient was able to feed her self and I practiced using a Hoyer lift (it's like a sling that can move people in and out of bed) since she wasn't able to get in and out of bed on her own. She was a little cranky in the morning so it was hard for me to not try to make her feel better while I was giving her a bed bath, but I think it just made her mood worse. I also don't feel totally comfortable turning patients by myself yet, so I had one of my collegues help me. I'm sure that stuff will come in time, but I really just don't want to hurt them (they all seem kind of frail!).

Anyway, we were so tired on Thursday after our clinical that everyone fell asleep until at least 8 pm. I woke up at 9, decided I had to have dinner so I made pasta and watched So You Think You Can Dance results. Our lives are so exciting. It seems like every weekend we talk about going out or exploring somewhere new but by the time we get there we all just want to sleep. I hope that we get to hang outside this weekend, though, since it hasn't been really nice yet and we haven't gotten to go to the beach.

Nic has been super awesome and had me and a couple of our friends work out with him on River Campus (which is just main campus but they call it something else since there's a RIVER next to it. Ridiculous). We did a sprinting work out today and I'm not sure if I'll be able to walk tomorrow (we did a bunch of lunges last week and I really couldn't) but I like our bonding time together :)

We finished our pharmacology/pathophys class today, have an exam in our clinical class tomorrow and have a paper due in our last genetics class Friday. 3/5 classes will be done Friday at 2:30 pm! In one month, I'll be one third done the whole program!

Oh man, we survived another week! Our lab for therapeutic interventions 1 is really useful - we've learned how to make beds, use bedpans (yikes?) and then today we learned how to insert a catheter. THAT was crazy. The video was a little disturbing, especially since I wasn't expecting its contents, obviously, since I was watching it in the lobby. :/

Since we didn't have school on Friday, we went to Niagra Falls(!). It was fun since we went to the Canadian side and then went shopping after at the outlets. We went on the Maid of the Mist, which is a very misleading name. It's a boat that goes close to the falls (American and Canadian) and they give you a little poncho to keep you dry. EPIC FAIL. We were all totally soaked almost up to our knees. We spent more time screeching and flailing than we did looking at the falls, but it was still fun :)




We hung out with Jerlin for the fourth of July and saw fireworks downtown. They were pretty good, probably because it's Rochester's 175 anniversary. I made eggplant parm (and sauce!) before we went so I felt kind of like a mom :) We went to Dinosaur BBQ after to get some food and avoid the crazy traffic and I was pleased again!



I have to decide what we are going to do tomorrow for my birthday, but at this point sleep is looking prettyyyy awesome. We go to clinical on Wednesday - bright and early at 0700! I think happy hour will suffice for me. 21 +1 just isn't as exciting...

Kissing Nursing Assessment Goodbye!

I'm done with Nursing Assessment! Wooooooooot! Next week we start Theraputic Interventions I, our clinical class. I'm really excited about that one since we had one of the professors as a guest lecturer in Assessment - he was pretty entertaining. Kind of reminded me of Jay B and made me miss his dry humor :( I made it through another Pharm exam and now I just have to finish our clinical paper (which is a task and a half!) and I'm done!

It's been really really nice this week! It's hot and muggy and I'm soaking it up. My legs are finally free from pants! :) Brit was totally right - I miss SoCal weather and I totally took the ocean view for granted, even if I didn't always get there. The Erie Canal just isn't as pretty (even if it's just as dirty as the Malibu beaches, haha). Maybe my view will change when fall rolls around.

I met with one of our program directors this week to talk about advanced practice nursing. She told me the different between a DNP and PhD and then told me a little more about what each of the faculty's area of research was. Even though it's before clinicals, I think I'm leaning toward an NP in Acute Care and a PhD on top of it. U of R has a combined masters/PhD program, but for Acute Care or NICU I'd have to have at least 2 years of experience - fine with me! I need a break from book learning and some hands on stuff. As for my research project, I'm really intrigued by the research being done in the pediatric sleep lab and also the facial expressions of pain for babies. I'm do some further investigating this weekend (since I'm free!!) into some of the faculty that were suggested to me - translation: reading papers - and then email my advisor back to see what else she could tell me. I'm so excited to try this! I loved being in Jay B's lab, but I haven't figured out how I could do that type of research and apply my nursing skills to it. I hope to learn that sometime this year :)

I still really like my program, and even if I get super stressed out and cranky, I am still ridiculously happy. It's starting to make me sick how much I'm enjoying this.

I made it through my final demo! As long as I do well on my written part for that exam, I'll have gotten a pretty good grade on it :) It was very nerve wracking, but my examiner was much more relaxed and practical than some of the other ones that were also testing students that day (or so I've heard). Either way, it's over! I have two tests this week and a clinical paper due on Friday (which I have no idea how to start let alone actually write) so it should be okay. Next week is when we start our class associated with our clinicals. One of the professors was a guest lecturer for nursing assessment last week and he was very entertaining. I think his class will be just as fun, or at least I'm hoping so.

Two of my roommates and I went to karaoke on Thursday night to celebrate being done with our final demos. It was kind of a weird bar, but we sang one song and then watched for about an hour. People were really into it - a lot of them picked songs that they were good at and fit their voice. It was almost the polar opposite of any other karaoke experience that I've had. We did get a lot of high fives for our performance, but that was probably because we were three girls, not because we were good at it. Anna tore it up though, so you never know!

We had a picnic on Friday which was kind of fun. It has been raining a lot, but it cleared up Friday night and was really nice out while we were in the park. People brought their puppies and kids and we all hung out and had some food. There were the cutest 11 month old twin girls there, so I got my fix of cute kids for awhile :)

I suppose I should start studying again :( I have already procrastinated today by laying around in bed and then working out. Boooo!

In 12 hours I will be my roommate's final demonstration patient for nursing assessment! In 13 hours, I will be going myself. We've been practicing a lot (probably why I have disappeared off the face of the earth?) so we are pretty comfortable with the assessment part of it. Reporting back to our examiner, though, might be tough. We are able to bring in "cheat sheets" listing whatever we want. As long as you don't read directly from it, you're golden. Mine has spaces for the symptoms of whatever problem she is given (we draw something like a headache out of a hat and we have to ask certain questions about it) and spaces for BP, HR and all of the vitals. I made mine more of an outline so when I look at it during the exam I'll know what comes next or what I've missed. Plus I added some jargon on there so I'll report back with the right terms. It's scary, but I think that we are both prepared. Everyone so far has done well - we think the only way you can really do poorly is by reading off the sheet word for word or just missing half of the systems we're supposed to assess. We will see!

We also had to take the CNET which makes sure we know enough about drugs to go into the clinical setting. It's a national test that nurses take when they go to work at certain hospitals, so if I apply to a place that requires it, I'm done! We went over all the answers in class since there was no way we would've known that stuff, but it was still kind of scary since we were hanging in the balance.

Speaking of clinicals, I will be in the med-surg unit for my acute care clinical for July/August! One of my roommates is in neurology and another in oncology. It seems like everyone is somewhere different for our acute care setting. I will be able to walk to that one, but my other one I think I will have to drive since it's about 2 miles away. We start our course that our clinicals fall under in 2 weeks! I'm really excited :)

Off I go to practice a little bit more. We tweaked our cheat sheets and now just want to see how they work!

It's gotten more intense, but I am exerting a herculean effort to make myself not stress out about all of the tests, demonstrations and activities we have coming up. My lab instructor for nursing assessment yesterday told us that getting an A on every pharm exam isn't what actually matters, it's if you can use your assessment skills on a patient and if you can document your findings. So, since she is a grad of my program, I will be trying to live by her advice. I still am reading and frantically studying, obviously, but if I want to take a break I will (ie root for the Lakers for an hour and a half before getting frustrated, giving up and going to bed). Cooking and working out has helped me to decompress and I've learned how to cook salmon, even if it's not always perfect. Blackened is actually how I would describe some of my "experiments".

We had a guest lecturer on skin assessment today so we got to see pictures of pressure ulcers. I decided that I'm not a fan of them. Please don't Google them if you haven't seen one - in stage 3 they're holes in the skin that make it so you can SEE bone and tendons. Spare yourself! I'm sure that after some exposure to them I won't be so freaked out, but for now I will choose to believe that I won't have to see a lot of them next month in long term care. They make me sad since they look so painful. :(

This week's lab was on breath sounds and I think I am well on my way to being a stethoscope pro. It's a little awkward telling your partners what you're doing (since they already know), but it can only get easier. We drew on ourselves with marker to outline the lobes of the lungs and I didn't really think about washing them off before I went to the gym between lab and class. When I was walking out of the gym, I realized my white shirt had purple splotches all over it where the lines had been drawn. Apparently, my fellow worker-outers now think I can sweat Kool-Aid. I decided it just own it like Regina George does with the holes in her shirt (end Mean Girls reference).

I recently became a fan of Pandora. The I put it onto my iTouch and it played ABBA for the first 20 mintues of studying on Sunday so that's probably why, but it also reminded me just how much I loved the hits of the 90s. I didn't realize my life was so empty without a daily play of "Bitter Sweet Symphony" by The Verve until I had it available. My Liz Phair station is also pretty entertaining, but I like it since now I'm not so stuck in my music rut.

When Kevin said I hadn't updated in awhile, he was right! I had pharmacology and nursing assessment exams on Monday as well as an online genetics exam that opened up. After completing all three, I am exhausted. Unfortunately, I have another pharmacology exam Friday and a nursing assessment exam on Monday. At this point, I just would like to remember everything they're telling us! It all seems useful, but it's just a lot to remember. Nursing assessment is pretty straight forward - they want you to tell them what response to a physiological test is normal or abnormal and what you would expect to see in a patient certain symptoms. In lab this week we are doing musculoskeletal and cardio exams. I figured out how to count down intercostal spaces on myself, (kind of) but I hope it's easier on someone else especially after we put all the anatomical landmarks on in washable marker. Pharmacology is more difficult since we don't have a time to "practice" what we learned in lecture like we do in assessment lab. It's nice that we don't have to memorize 12478904 drug names, but all the side effects are overlapping for me at this point.

Audrea and I watched some Grey's Anatomy on Sunday night before our tests to relax and see what we could find that they do wrong. It was kind of fun! We knew a little bit more about the patient care aspect (obviously not a lot since we've been here almost 3 weeks), but we had a good time :)

I finally went to the medical library(!) for a tour and it's really nice right now since it's not very busy. I'm sure when people come back in the fall it will be a zoo, but the "lobby" outside of the library has skylights and comfortable chairs to study in. There's a reading room that used to be the old hospital lobby, but the ceilings are so high that I'm not sure if I would feel comfortable studying in there (I'm more of a study nook person). Anyway, the reference librarian that works with the School of Nursing was really sweet and asked us about ourselves (there were 3 of us on the tour when I went, haha) and explained everything about the library to us fairly quickly. The librarians can even do a search on a topic for you and email you the results, which I thought was a nice tool for when I have to do a research paper. The only thing is that you have to pay for interlibrary loan documents. I hope that they have a LOT more resources than Pepperdine did because I used ILL all the time.

Team Sansillo is enthusiastically doing the NikeFit app for iTouch (and I guess iTunes?). Some of the exercises they want you to do are a little ridiculous, and since I can't access the internet in the gym I have to remember to watch them before I go into the hopsital. It has a schedule of when you work out and a timer for each exercise. You get points for whichever ones you complete (or tell them you did). If I have no idea what I'm supposed to do, I'll do another one that I know that's not on the list for that day instead. The only weird thing about this app is that if only gives you 10 exercises that are usually 2 minutes each. I thought by setting it on intense cardio it would give me mileage or an amount of time to bike/run/elipticize, but it doesn't. Hmmmm...

Mini-mental assessment = bad idea

We learned how to do a neurological exam in Nursing Assessment today and one of the questions you're supposed to ask to judge the person's cognitive function/general awareness is, "Can you tell me what day it is?" Wrong question to ask. I have no idea. I had to remind myself it's Wednesday, and I had NO idea what the date was - that's why Word automatically finishes that stuff for you. I've been so engrossed in following the APNN calendar that I don't look at the date, just what I have to do and when. It's a little better now that I synced my Google calendar with my iTouch since that has the date right at the top of the column, but other than that I just go from house to class to lobby to lab to class to lobby to class to house (or some variation).

In lab yesterday we got to draw all over our partner's face with markers to help us remember where nerves, lymph nodes, sinuses and muscles were. Luckily "washable" really means "washable" for the markers we had. The coolest thing I got to see so far was probably the tympanic membrane. You never really wonder about how the inside of your ear looks until you have to carefully stick something into someone else's ear to look at it. Usually it looks nice and flesh colored and the membrane is shiny and pearly gray. You can even see one of the smallest bones in the body. Super cool, even if it was a little stressful and awkward at first.

There is a path that goes along the Erie Canal that I explored yesterday in the drizzle and a little more today. It's pretty nice and I've heard it's really really long. You don't miss green plants and trees until you don't have them anymore. I am more than happy to be back in the northeast and to jump in/avoid the puddles on my way to and from class.

Our study break tonight is a trip to Abbott's for some (apparently amazing) custard. Reward time! Our first assignment, dosage calculations, is due tomorrow and our first tests are on Monday. The stress level hasn't increased too much, but it's probably because I'm still in the honeymoon phase - I'm not bored in class! My roommates are great! Maybe by our first clinical I will feel differently. But for now, I love nursing school! :)

I can't find my brachial artery.... Am I dead?

We got our stethoscopes and iTouches this week, so we have all been playing around with our new toys. In lab we learned how to take blood pressure, heart rate, and temperature as well as do a patient assessment. The hardest part so far has been finding brachial arteries and learning the adjectives used to describe a patient's appearance. "Normal" means nothing (unless you're talking about head shape), so "symmetrical," "adequate nutrition," and "skin appears to be age stated" are now floating around in my head while I wander through Target, Best Buy or the gym. In class I'll make sure I can still find my own brachial artery when we get a break. You get over feeling weird about touching people pretty quickly since you're feeling their arm for 10 minutes trying to find their pulse or cutting off the blood supply to their hand since the gague on the little pump up ball is stuck on their blood pressure cuff. Isn't it great we get this all out of the way on each other and not on our patients?


Everyone that we (we being my house) are friends with are really fun. One of my friends was at the men's NCAA lax championship this weekend in Boston (bummer) but the girls that live down the street came out with us. I forgot what it was like to have fun with your roomies! Audrea took pictures to document our ridiculousness, but I don't think they do us justice. The club was actually pretty big with a huge deck- who knew Rochester had a night life? Unfortunately, going out Friday night ruined a lot of our Saturday since all we wanted to do was sleep. Nic and I went to go get printers and covers for our iTouches so at least we were out in the world a little bit. Audrea, Anna and I watched a movie from Ghana, which was funny but didn't have an ending, and then Step Up so Anna could see just how cute Channing Tatum really is. While Nic went to the gym, Aundrea, Anna and I went for a walk around our neighboorhood and found a little strip mall that has Chinese, Thai, pizza and BBQ places in it. Obviously, we went home, got wallets and got dinner at the BBQ and Chinese places. Delightful.

I think I have figured out Skype. I've video chatted with Cassandra and typed to Seedling, but now I have made a call to Stuart! I was proud of myself. Instead of reading or working on taking blood pressures, I talked to Stuart and had way too much delicious food. I think it's a solid way to spend a Saturday night.

I suppose I should go try to read about pharmacology or something. Maybe I'll just listen to my heart with my stethoscope instead.

Back to school, back to school

Orientation wasn't too bad this morning, except that they split up me and my roommates! It's like they knew we were living together - bummer. We each met some other students who seemed pretty cool, so it wasn't a total loss. We also had our first class - pathophysiology/pharmacology. For me, it was basically a review of the last two weeks of psychopharm with Dr. Folkerts plus some nursing stuff (like what to ask a patient during an interview and how to ask it). In class we also got to look at a case study and found out that we have to pass a test sometime next month in order to distribute medications when we do clinicals. Yikes? The professor said that it's usually the math section that gets people in trouble. Math? What? Good thing I brought my calculator. The practice problem and post test assignments are due sometime next week and looking at the post test it seems like the factor-label method. Who knows - I have yet to read chapter 5.

Be ready to be impressed - for the first time in my academic career, I have read all of the assigned reading for a class ahead of time. I haven't watched the videos, and still need to catch up on pathophys/pharm reading, but I am totally ready for nursing assessment tomorrow. I think. That's the only class we have tomorrow since iTouches, stethoscopes, uniforms and pictures are all scheduled to be received, fitted and taken. When my "blurb" and picture goes on the website, I will post it :) Hopefully I will look happier than I do in my ID picture and have less of a brontosaurus neck. Good thing I like dinosaurs.

Everyone talks about how awesome Rochester is in the summer and how much stuff there is to do - I'm not totally sold that I'll get to do any of it, but our plan is to try to get to as many street fairs as possible. If I can, I would love to at least have Friday night off from reading, even if the texts aren't as dry as they could be. We will just have to see how it goes.

Another 8 am-4 pm day awaits so I am off to bed!

From summer camp to real college

Twelve hours from now, I will be in the middle of orientation at the University of Rochester for their Accellerated Program for Non Nurses. Two weeks ago, I running between UPS and my apartment trying to ship the contents of my room across the country. I don't really have a problem with my lack of summer vacation since I think this will be the most rewarding choice I've ever made, but it's a little crazy to think that three weeks ago I didn't have a degree and now I'm starting a second one.

We drove down on Saturday, through the Adirondak forest of course, and I finished unpacking and decorating my room on Sunday. I tried to be concious of where I placed things on my wall so it wouldn't look quite as helter-skelter as my other place did (pictures will come soon! Cass already had the video tour when we Skyped). I'm missing recent pictures of everyone, but I'm sure I'll make up some excuse to go to Walmart and print them out instead of studying soon. I have all of my summer books (most of them I had ordered before graduation) and some of them are pretty intimidating. Luckily, it seems like those are the books that are required for the year and not only a single class. I'm crossing my fingers that the pharmacology class won't be like psychopharm was last semester - it will take an amazing amount of will power to pay attention if it is. It seems like some of our classes, like genetics, are online, but I guess I'll find out tomorrow! I have already started reading for my Nursing Assessment class. I'm an over acheiver? I think it's more paranoia - I can't recall a class that I ever actually read for at Pepperdine - sorry Brewster, Vandergon, et al.! My lack of motivation to read doesn't mean I liked you any less. Of course I would look up certain topics in the texts for micro or biochem, but it wasn't like I actually read the entire chapter like I was supposed to. Hopefully that will change this year... or at least this summer.

My roommates are amazing. Two are from Washington and actually went to the same school (but didn't know each other and graduated in different years) and my other roommate is from Chigago but originally from Ghana. I, of course, am the baby of the group. I think I'm at least 2 or 3 years younger than all of them though. I could be the youngest in this program (which I am very tempted to believe) but even some of the stuff my roommates have done makes me jealous. Two of them have worked with HIV/AIDS patients (in clinics and hospices) and the other has been a treatment counselor. What did I do? Wait for a plate reader from Finland for an entire semester. Faux volunteer at Venice Family Clinic. Student wedding assisting. Fitness classes. PVC special events. The list of crazy jobs goes on. Really? Really. At least I'm not the only one who didn't study abroad! I have already made goals of things I would like to learn from my roommates. From Aundrea, I would like to learn patience. From Nic, I would like to learn Vietnamese and from Anna I would like to learn Twi, a language spoken in Ghana. We all want to find the gym to make sure we don't get too stressed out and we all share a similar sense of humor so I am very optimistic about our year together.

We have done a little exploring so we know where Target, Walmart, Best Buy and the mall are (they're all close together), but got completely lost trying to explore downtown. Nic fell asleep in the back seat, so Aundrea and I were left to wonder what the heck the Inter-Loop was and why the lawyers on the billboards were so creepy. There are a lot of parks within the city and campus is really pretty. Our campus (the medical one that has the Schools of Nursing, Medicine and Dentistry) is within walking distance, so we will be getting some exercise each day going to class. We found the soccer stadium (go Rochester Rhinos!) and a baseball stadium as well. Rochester apparently has professional lacrosse and U of R has a football team (!) - goodbye summer camp, hello college! I'm more than sure this program will be super intense and a little crazy at times, but if I can't find a way to relax I will go crazy. Besides, after junior year I can handle anything.

I keep expecting Cassandra, Dana, Sansone and Seed to pop up from behind a bush or ring the doorbell. Eventually that expectation will go away... I think.