12 of 12 - August

12 of 12 was created by Chad Darnell (you can find his website and a bunch of 12 of 12 links here), and has bloggers worldwide taking 12 photos throughout the day on the 12th day of each month. I've been meaning to do this for a long time, so here it goes! The most important way to start a day. So I'm moving. Or... hoping to move soon... and this is how my study looked at the start of the day. Scary! So my dearest B bought new shoes, and he likes them more than they like him. The blister is a little icky, so I fired up my nursing skills, soaked it, cleaned it, and bandaged it up. Only... I didn't have the "toe bandage" lab, so it's pretty hilariously done. Still, it stayed on for the rest of the day! See this? Ok, so it's currently on the fridge, but that magnet is my BScN pin. It's worth tens of thousands of dollars, two years of loneliness and ridiculous amounts of homework, and very nearly my sanity. I finally made it to Elm Cafe for lunch. OH WOW. That was a grilled cheese. Do you SEE all the cheese oozing out of that sammich? And the coffee! Wow, most amazing americano I may have ever had. Hey, look! After several hours of work, the study is looking better! Lets not look in any other room, but at least this one is getting under control. If you can't tell what this is, I don't blame you. This is my car. It's been driving around on the prairies for a while. There are a LOT of bugs on the prairies. I really need to wash my car. I haven't made anything out of this cookbook yet, but I have read the blog for a while. I'm pretty excited to make some more traditional foods now that I'm no longer a student! What's in here? OH! You can't see this! It's the awesome heels I just bought to wear to a certain wedding I will be at in a few months. You know, mine? This evening was spent with some friends, enjoying a BBQ and fire. I didn't make a huge number of new friends here, but the ones I made, I will miss. On the way home there were fireworks! I'm not entirely sure why, but since I wasn't driving, I took a picture. Wow. Uh... I can't count. That's only 11. Still, that's 11 more than I usually get each month! I'll have to try to be better next month.

Growing

The little ticker in the upper left corner of my blog tells me that as of today, I have 41 days before I'm finished nursing school. Uh... woah. I'm rocking the preceptorship right now, working in a palliative unit and ADORING it. It takes a certain kind of person to work palliative and like it, so the staff are amazing, awesome, and a total team. My preceptors think I'm doing well and really like me, and even though I'm on nights right now so I'm so confused as I'm eating breakfast at 4:30 in the afternoon, I am having such a fun time. I've been there long enough now that some of my favourite patients that were around for quite a while are starting to go. That's hard. But really, my job is to make sure they are comfortable and have no pain (or as close to that as medically possible!), and when they go, it's really just a relief because now my job is done, and they won't suffer. I hoped so much that it would be a positive, uplifting place, and it totally is. I absolutely will be looking at palliative nursing in my career... just hopefully not TOO many night shifts. There's a lot more growing around here than me, though. I bought some $2 wallpaper-application-container-thingies (I have no idea what they're actually called) that make some nice windowboxes, and bought a few plants and another herb-filled windowbox at a plant sale at the hospital i'm working at. Ok, these are from Home Depot, and in theory, will someday have red snapdragon flowers. Basil just coming up, with some cilantro and garlic chives in the background. Chocolate-mint, which grows like a weed (meaning even I can make it thrive) and makes excellent tea and an even better addition to ice water for a ridiculously refreshing drink. It even kept me awake all last night on my shift. More chocomint, with a christmas cactus in the background. Did you know rosemary bloomed like this? I didn't, but man do those blooms smell good. By tomorrow or the next day, I will have my first all-ripe strawberry from my back porch! My back porch, with its herb-box and other assorted plants in pots. I've got rhubarb growing like crazy, too. I should probably bake with it soon.

Concentrate, concentrate...

Man, the week after reading week is turning out to be quite the pain in the butt. First half of a group paper for one class due on Monday, and another group paper for another class due tomorrow. My turn to teach a lecture (also with a partner) is next week (don't get me started on how much we teach each other, instead of having some expert teaching) so I have to prepare so much for that too. But my brain is just full right now. Ack! So I'll post some pictures from reading week. I went and visited family, and it was a really good break. Hello Birthday Boy! My adorable nephew. Getting kisses from his cousin at his birthday party. So much FOOD for such a little boy! I sure don't have birthday parties like that for me. Someone was a wee bit more interested in smushing than eating, but hey - when you're the birthday boy, you get a little leeway. Smile like Grandma! And Birthday Boy doesn't like missing out - someone stayed up to 10:30 just to make sure he didn't miss any of the action. There's more stuff, too. I got my dress. Yeah, The Dress. Except not exactly. I'm not exactly the "fall in love, cry all over" sort of girl, but I found something so STINKING adorable and fitted me so well... and well, it's amazing just the way it is, but not perfectly amazing. So later, after school is done, I've got some changes I'm going to make for it. My Mom actually has it, which is good - I can't be distracted by trying it on over and over and over again, which I totally would. Yeah, I've been pretty crap at reading blogs, emails, etc for the last little bit. Sorry... it's going to be like that for a little longer. Now I better get back to work. I've sure got enough of it.

Look! I won!

Wow! A little while ago I started following a blog of a fellow student and knitter over at Dreamknitter. I like knitting blogs, as they are a great distraction from things I should be doing like homework. And they inspire me to knit, thereby avoiding homework even more. See? Terrific! Anyway, she did a giveaway on her blog to anyone who followed her and commented... and I was the lucky winner! And check out how lucky I was! Yarn, yarn, buttons, earrings, tea, yarn, fabric, yarn, body spray, and more yarn! Ok, here are some favorites. I've been looking at some fun asymmetrical cardigan patterns on Ravelry. These big buttons would be great! And colour! I have no idea what I'm going to use that square stuff for, but whatever it will be, it will be FUN. And check out the label on the cinnamon tea. I could use that... because I really need to get back to my studies. Midterm on Friday, and I need to write my portion of my research proposal before I leave early Saturday morning. But hey, now I've got even MORE motivation to get through this homework - more yarn to knit up!

Start as you mean to go on

I saw some words in another blog the other day that have stuck in my head. "Start as you mean to go on". They keep bouncing around in my brain, frustrating me. Why? Well, see, I've had some absolutely gigantic changes happen in the last several years, and I've made the decision to seize my life, stop letting things just happen to me, and really DO something I want to do. It's happening, sometimes in the most painful way possible. I moved away from my beloved ocean, mountains, and worst - the man of my dreams, all to go to the prairies, to a city I didn't know to go to school. School has been... well, nursing school is always hellish, so I guess it's "normal". But it's all coming together - in the next 6 months I will finish school, then get a job, write my RN exam, and then get married. Um, hello, talk about giant life changes for the best! But those words... Start as you mean to go on. I started my engagement, a time that should be full of exciting planning and further building a life together, by getting back on a plane and returning to the prairie school I hate so much. This is so hard. I forget that most people don't go through each day randomly bursting into tears once or twice because something, possibly small and insignificant, reminded them of how lonely they are. Yes, yes, I have friends, and I'm sure lots of people would love to line up and tell me how they did long distance dating at the start of their relationship, but after spending six years with my best friend, we have to be apart for nearly two. We're obviously going to make it, but I have loathed every second. And school. Oooooh, school. I shy away from venting about school, about frustration that I am not allowed to think about "unnursey" things like death, homeless people, someone who actually CAN'T breastfeed their baby, harm reduction policies that involve needle exchanges, etc etc etc. There is a reason I want to be a nurse, and that reason isn't to help people who are fairly well off continue in their lives. I clearly have a deep interest in the stuff that normal nurses know better than to touch. Start as you mean to go on. It's hard. I propose a research topic to an instructor, and get horrified insistance that NO one cares about THAT, and you must do something NORMAL that society would actually benefit from! I attend the upper-middle-class daycare, but ask perhaps I could go to the needle exchange too, but it isn't a part of this public health course. I ask if I can be with the really sick patient who is dying, and I get a lecture on how nurses should NOT have any interest in death, that if I am I cannot be a truely good nurse because I'm only ever supposed to help my patients get better. I get it, I really do. You must teach the baseline, the "normal nursing job" stuff, the things that everyone should know. I had just really hoped I could get a little exposure to things that I will do. You know, start off, in even small ways, in the manner that i want to go on in. 6 more months, and I'll start my practice. It's another start. And I'll make sure that's the one that starts like I mean to go on.

Trying to do homework!

It sure would be more fun to go on a trip right now instead of finishing my papers and assignments. Even just a ride for a few hours. Please? Ok, fine. Back to work.

Just another Saturday...

My elephants upstairs have moved out, and a new girl is moving in. She used to live there, and she's apparently really picky about it being quiet (YAY!), but as I said, she's moving in. There's a bunch of people helping her, and they're all wearing hard soled shoes and carrying couches. Boo. It's ok. I'm at a Second Cup because the Starbucks was full, attempting to finish a paper. By finish, I mean get past the first page. Ack! But I've formulated a strategy, I've started, and I think I just got hit with an inspiration. I sure hope so... I'm also missing a certain someone I'm ridiculously fond of, and mostly just wanted to post that so you could all feel sorry for me. Ha. Now back to homework!