meh.

So far I'm getting absolutely nothing done today. Nothing helpful anyway. I've spent hours and hours on Facebook, I looked at Consumer Reports reviews on espresso machines, and I did a bit of laundry. Basically, I'm doing everything except what I need to be doing, which is studying.

Monday is my first day of my pediatric clinical rotation. I'm super excited, but I have extremely limited knowledge of children. Especially sick children.

This past Wednesday I went to St. Francis for orientation for my OB rotation. The last time I was there was exactly a year before (to the date), when I was diagnosed with 'fetal demise' via ultrasound. I'm determined to replace the bad memories with new ones.

Essentially, it's been a week of reflection. It's amazing to me that it's been a year. In ways, it feels much more recent, and in other ways, it seems as if it was a lifetime ago. My personal experience has taught me what NOT to do as a student nurse. I didn't receive much support from my doctor. At the time, I assumed that was just the way it worked. I was inexperienced and naive and figured it was the same everywhere for everyone. In fact, it was school that taught me otherwise. Needless to say, I immediately switched doctors. And now I know better. And because of it, I will be better prepared to care for my patients. Maybe well-intentioned friends who said "everything happens for a reason" were right....in a way.

Anyway, I suppose that's enough on that TMI topic. Next time, I promise something a bit more upbeat!

MLK Day/Hormone-Induced Sentimental Ramblings

Inspired by MLK Day, I searched for an appropriate quote to use for my Facebook status. I chose "Never, never be afraid to do what's right, especially if the well-being of a person or animal is at stake. Society's punishments are small compared to the wounds we inflict on our soul when we look the other way."

This quote left me with goosebumps. It also made me reflect on my own life, particularly the changes I’ve experienced in the past 19 months. (warning: I’m about to get sentimental and weird for a bit)

A little over a year and a half ago I had a “nice” career. With it, I enjoyed a steady paycheck, cheap insurance, and plenty of vacation time. Did I love my career? No. Did I feel I was giving back to the community? No. In fact, it was quite the opposite. I worked for a large insurance company and my job was to decide who could have life insurance and who was too great a risk. I didn’t love what I did and I didn’t necessarily feel good about myself. At the end of the day, I was a good provider for my family.

Today I’m thinking about how incredibly lucky I am to have been laid off from that job. Had the economy not been in the toilet, I would not be in school right now. I wouldn’t have the opportunity to give something back….to be someone better. Even though my household income has been crippled, my husband and I do not have to go hungry. We have a roof over our heads, food in our bellies, clothes on our backs. We have wonderful, supportive friends and families. We have each other. We are fortunate. Others are not so lucky. Today I feel truly blessed. Funny how everything happens for a reason.

Sorry for being all weepy – I blame hormones!!

Hello there! pt. 2

Okay, I suppose I should add a few more details about myself. I'm married to a chef (lucky me!!). We've been married about 2 1/2 years and my husband should be a good source of comedic inspiration for my writings. We live in Bayview, WI with a big yellow dog and a small geriatric cat. My life is pretty much awesome most of the time. And even when it's not awesome, it's at least pretty entertaining.

I have major elements of ADD at times, which will become quite obvious. I feel I should point that out early, since the subject matter of future posts may appear a bit scattered. The way I look at it, my brain can't quite keep up with its own ideas. Too many ideas all the time. To Do lists are pretty much mandatory in my life to ensure any one project is carried out to the end.

My To Do list for today is pretty much ginormous and I'm really not making any dents so far. It includes quitting smoking, reading a billion pages of nursing texts for next week's classes, attempting to put all of my bills to pay/classes/clinicals/etc into calendar format, drink more coffee, smoke cigarettes while preparing to quit, and hopefully showering at some point. I'll report back later to see what actually happened....

I suppose if I HAD any followers, I could ask for suggestions on syncing Google Calendar with my iCal....but since I have no followers, I'll be trying to accomplish this on my own.

Hello there!

Okay, I've been meaning to start blogging for some time now. Mainly, so I can blab about things without having all my Facebook friends block me from live feed, since I suspect many have already done so. I realize nursing school isn't all that interesting to everyone, but I find it fascinating - mostly because it has become my world in the past year or so.

A bit about me: I'm 30-something, and a 4th semester nursing student. As a child, I wanted to be a nurse - this didn't exactly happen in the usual fashion or in an ordinary sense. Circumstances beyond my control left me unemployed on June 23, 2009. Since the economy took a huge dive, I had no luck in finding another position in my field and, long story short, school became the best choice. So, here I am!

Fast forward to January, 2010: First day of nursing school.

Fast forward to January, 2011: First week of 4th semester of nursing school! The past year of my life has been the most rewarding/proudest/scariest to date. Prior to starting school, I had zero experience in patient care, although I was fairly well-versed in diagnoses and medical terminology from my "past life" as a life insurance underwriter. I'd like to think it helped a bit in the beginning, but now I'm pretty much learning day by day.