Hiding under the covers

That's kind of what I feel like doing right now. But I'll do the right thing and take a look at both the positive and negative.

Bad: I have a pharmacology quiz to take.
Good: Jenny is on IM to keep me company.

Bad: We had to listen to the college president talk this afternoon about stuff that doesn't pertain to incoming students.
Good: They served us free pizza.

Bad: I was late for Health Assessment
Good: The computer was being really slow, so all I missed was sitting around.

Bad: I have TONS of homework assignments to do. (anyone know how to do a health history and a genogram?)
Good: ..............Not coming up with much here....Oh, I'll get to find out what my great grandparents died of. :-S

Bad: My clinical site is an hour away from my house...Meaning I have to leave at 5:30am
Good: I'll get to see the sunrise....I think...(what time does it rise anyway?)

Bad: I'm really stressed right now.
Good: Stress causes me to rely more fully on God.

7 days + school = seemingly forever

School has been going for only one week. It has been the longest week of my life! I feel like Spring break should be right around the corner. Last night I spent 2 hours taking a 25 question pharmacology quiz, and today I have lots of stuff to read, and 20 pages of a health assessment lab report to do before Friday. Bleh. I'm feeling superly unmotivated.

I'm trying really hard to kick my caffeine addiction. Yeah, I know, that's not a real great thing to try during nursing school. I'm so tired, and have a headache, and I'd love to go crawl in my bed, curl up with my pillows, and fall fast asleep. But I'm not - I'm practicing self discipline and typing this post instead of doing school stuff.

I randomly went to Kansas this past weekend. It was great! Jill and I made lemon meringue soup, and I listened to Brenna chat a mile a minute and tell me all about everything in my bag that her mom or dad has. :-) It was cute.

I suppose I should stop procrastinating and go do something.

I was excited this morning because....

It was my first day of nursing school!! I was so thrilled to look in the mirror and see that I looked official in my khaki's, lab coat, nursing shoes, and ID badge. Kate also called me at 7:20, all excited about it being my first day. I think she was more excited than I was. :-)

So I left my house at a way-to-early hour, drove to the hospital, walked for forever in the freezing cold, went up the Glen Oak elevator to the 8th floor, and into the lab to start my first day as an official nursing student. We watched some dvd's on how to do stuff, and then we got to practice. First we all had to do handwashing (yes-handwashing. There really is more to good handwashing than you might think), then we moved onto enemas. Don't worry, we practiced that on dummies. But we were all divided into groups. We changed into swimming suits, and gave each other baths. Yes, it was a little weird, but I survived.

Tomorrow I have my first day of actual lecture. I have over 150 pages of notes sitting on my desk. There are so many, that I have no idea what goes to which class. All 150 pages are coming with me.

Because of the week I had last week, I thought it would be appropriate to include a blonde joke in this post. This one was told to me by my brother at supper last night:

Two blondes were driving along a road by a wheat field when they saw a blonde in the middle of the field rowing a row boat. The driver blonde turned to her friend and said "You know - it's blondes like that that give us a bad name!" To this, the other blonde replies "I know it, and if I knew how to swim, I'd go out there and drown her."

I think I can, I think I can....

I thought I could, but I chickened out. Every time I tried to go over a jump, I'd freak, and go around it. Oh well. Who knows what would have happened if I'd have done it- I might not be typing this post right now. Skiing was a blast! We sang in the car and on the ski lift, talked, drove around in Iowa before getting back to IL (No, I didn't get lost. I followed the directions perfectly, they just took us a very odd way to Galena. I kept asking if we were in IL or IA cause I was never sure.), and just had general fun.

Today was my first day of nursing school orientation- another thing I wasn't sure if I could do, but after today, I'm pretty sure I can. I don't think it'll be as bad as I imagine it to be. Knowing what I'm doing, where I'm going, my classes, meeting the teachers and my fellow students was really reassuring, as was my nursing mentor, who informed me about a bunch of stuff, including the fact that first semester is not the most awful time of your life like everyone says. I almost hugged her when she said that. :D

I decided to do this post in green and blue since those are Methodist College of Nursing colors. :-)

Changes

Well, I didn't end up going to Kansas. Like Luke said, life in unpredictable. I was ready to leave, had all my stuff packed up, when my aunt called to tell us that my grandma had died. So instead of being with Larry and Jill and the kids, I found myself spending a lot of time with my extended family, sitting through a long visitation, crying through a funeral, and spending more time with my extended family. Not quite the best trade I can think of, but it was ok.

I'll miss my grandma a lot. She was an amazing lady, and I loved her a ton, but I wouldn't wish her back for anything.

Tomorrow I'm braving the elements, and going skiing. Hurray!! I bet I'll hardly be able to move on Wednesday. :D

Happy New Year!

And now that the new year is successfully rung in, I'm headed off to Kansas for a few days! That thought makes me smile. :-)