Partying like it's Summer 2008.

Whew.  It's tough work celebrating summer.  Especially when the month of May has decided to take on the role of JANUARY.  Everyday, I get up and look at the greyness and talk to myself for about 5 min convincing myself that it really is in fact summer and not winter and that I don't have school to attend.  It's not quite Bummer Vacation yet, but if May doesn't pull its head out of its butt soon there will be many posts about the weather.  I'm so weather dependent.

That being said, my first week of Summer Vacation 2008 (from here on referred to as SV08) has been spectacular.  But first, a recap of my final.

My final was at 5:30am on Monday.  I know some people that get up even earlier, but that's by choice and they're used to it.  Me?  Not used to it.  And I couldn't just show up in clean PJ's and slippers (which describes my wardrobe for most of my Westmont class attendance, says a lot doesn't it?) because of infernal orientation at 8am.  The final was OK- it was pretty much how I expected it to go, with the expected few questions that cause me to think, "Really?  You wanted us to know that?  Out of everything you covered, that?"  I handed it off to my beloved professor with a "Nyehhh, take it, I'm done!" and headed off to Starbucks with two friends.

Starbucks was a challenge.  I refer to our time spent that morning as When Nursing Students Breakdown.  I gave ordering the drink I always order a heck of a go, but it came out like this:

Cashier: Hi, what can I get you?

Me: Um yeah, I'll have a... have a... hold on.

Cashier: Uh.. take your time.

Me: (with the picture of my beloved beverage in my head and no way of getting it out verbally) I know it's gonna be a grande.  And iced, yeah pretty sure it's iced.  Um, grande.  Iced.  Nonfat? Caramel... macchiato... iced?  That's a drink right, you make those here, right?

Cashier: (with a weird look and a pause) Yeah...

So sad.  

My orientation was pretty boring, but they fed us 2 meals and the chief safety officer told some pretty funny stories during his presentation so I guess it all evens out.  We kept sneaking out to use the cafeteria computers to check our final scores.  I needed an 85 to keep my grade... and I got an 89.  First B on a final in over 2 years and I could've cared less.  I even got some bloodwork results- good news!  I'm immune to measles, mumps and rubella, Hep B, and the chicken pox.  Dodged those bullets...

And since then, it's been whatever I want to do!  Sleep in, stay up late, go for a run.  I'd surf, but I still don't have a new state park pass and Bummer Vacation weather has taken care of the rest.  So I run.  It's OK.  

I've hijacked my mother-in-law's sewing machine and have embarked on my adventures in sewing.  I'm pretty much atrocious, but it's fun and I've made a purse and two skirts, neither of which fit me well.  One's too small, the other is too big.  I considered taking a sewing class for about 0.59 seconds and then I kicked myself in the head to knock some sense back into me.  I just got out of school- and I want to be saddled with sewing projects like "I want to see three perfect zippers by next Tuesday."  Anyway, here are my 3 creations:

Too big.

Too small.

My cute purse!!!  See, from this picture, you can't see how haggard it looks.  But I made it, and so therefore it is awesome.

In garden news, the lettuce patch has some expanding residents and some surprising exits.  

- I have 3 heads of lettuce that I'm leaving to grow to full size before I chop the leaves off.

- Spinach is fickle and it pisses me off.  

- I ripped out the last arugula bush and planted a couple of seeds to see if I can't grow small plants this time.

- I've been finding some pretty sizeable caterpillars in my lettuce patch.  They are the latest additions to my hit list, joining rats and slugs.  My preferred method of removal is to find them and then stab them in half with twigs.  I'm the 32 yr old equivalent of a boy burning ants with a magnifying glass.  Anyway, here is a picture of most of the lettuce patch because it's kind of funny looking right now.  The Tall One refers to it as the Dr. Seuss Garden because it's, well, odd.

I have romaine pillars!!

Well, today is our 1 year anniversary.  I better get cracking at some housecleaning and maybe some cookie baking.  We're celebrating one year with food.  I think we're off to a good start.

Tears of defeat.

I'm so tired of studying.  Bwaa-haa-haaaa, sniffle sniffle.  Yet, I can't stop.  Bwaa-haa-haaaaa!

It's summertime!!!

Kelley Fogarty!!!!  I hold you solely responsible for providing me with the motivation and tools to waste a minimum of 2.5 hours on this summertime look for my blog.  :)

Kell's got a great blog of her family that allows other family people and friends to keep up with the adventures (or horrors) of having 2 boys under the age of 3.  She and I talk probably a little too much about blogs and cool things to do to them.  Mostly, I just copy her.  I knocked off her playlist music and now a cool background.  The countdown clock was all my idea though- and that took more time than it should've, mostly because it doesn't have to do with side effects of hypertension medications or diagnostic tests for gastrointestinal disorders so I was having a hard time focusing.  Anyway, in my first plug for someone else's blog, you should check out Kelley's blog, if only to hear her music and check out her freaking cute kids.

Back to summertime- it's hotter than blazes here.  The Tall One insists that I have a comfort zone of 74-77 degrees and outside of that I start griping.  I beg to differ.  Merely voicing an observation is not griping.  Making the same point 57 different ways in the span of 4 hours- that's griping.  But I admit, some overzealous neighbors near us have AC (seriously, we can't be more that a half mile from the ocean if you drove down the street and went all Fall Guy off the bluff) and I get a little green with envy when I hear it kick in.  Ohhhhh, the glory of dehumidified, frosty, Arctic air...

I'm so sick of studying....

Clarification!!!!

To anybody totally confused by my last post and therefore worried (aka: Dr. Dueck!!!), I DON'T have TB.  No awful antibiotics and lying low for me!!

Today was my last lecture.  In true nursing school fashion, we finished lecture a full 40 minutes ahead of schedule but still did not let us go early.  Could they just let us go with a "Hey!!  Great job, see you on Monday for the final and enjoy the few extra minutes?"  Hell no!!!!!  They took the opportunity to have a face-to-face with all of us to go over the good, bad and what they could do better for next semester.  @#%!#$%!%!!!  Just let us go!!!!!!!!!!  To rub salt in the wound, they kept us until 11:15, 25 minutes over.  It's a good thing the nursing department had an ice cream social where I could have free rainbow sherbert to help me forget the injustice.  I can usually be appeased with ice cream.

So, I've already begun celebrating.  The Tall One and I just got back from a harbor cruise with Pacificos and I'm giving myself another 30-45 minutes to recover before I hit the books again.  If you're paying attention, I have added a countdown clock (similar to a NASA shuttle takeoff) that is counting down the time until my final on Monday.   4 days and change, and then it will all be over... for 3 months.

Lastly, being able to watch live video feed of the Billabong Pro surf contest in Tahiti while in a computer lab getting ready to take an assessment test is quite possible one of the awesomest things ever.

Sometimes failure is a good thing.

Just in case you all were worried, you can breathe a sigh of relief- I failed my TB test.  Last Friday afternoon (at about 2pm to be exact), I was sneak-attacked by the HR dept at Saddleback and in the span of 2 hours I had to sign my name and the date about 19 times, get blood drawn, drive to Laguna Hills and get a physical and pee in a cup as part of a drug test... all for my upcoming "life as an extern" this summer.  Which is all fine and good, I will be in contact with sick people and need to be healthy and those sick patients in turn should not have to worry about catching something from me.

So, being happy that I flunked my TB test and the fact that I have a final in less than 7 days and counting, I started thinking about passing and failing tests.  For all my bluster about getting a D or F on my final and still getting a B overall, there's no way in holy hell that's going to happen if I have anything to do about it.  My good friends Pride and Vanity have rematerialized and I'm not letting go of my A without a fight.  Plus, I realized that I've made the Dean's List every semester since I decided to dropkick my life to the curb and go back to school.  I know that claiming Dean's List at Saddleback is probably along the lines of claiming your band is big in Andorra or Liechtenstein, but I got one number and one word for you: 1.369 GPA.

Anyway, enough about passing tests, back to failing tests.  You want to fail a TB test.  And that kicked off me thinking of other tests you're better off failing.  Here's my list, in no particular order:

1. TB test.

Tuberculosis is bad.  Not only does it make you sick as hell, no one wants to be around you for the 6mos-2yrs you're on antibiotics except the social health workers that follow-up with you to make sure you're taking your antibiotics.  If you test positive- get ready to meet your new friends Chest X-ray and Isoniazid.   Fail this one at all costs.

2. Pregnancy test. (If you're me at this current time in history)

I had one right before I went into nursing school and I was so happy I failed, I cried.  True story.  One day, I will probably want to see that little plus-sign and throw a party, with soda and unspiked punch of course.  But until then, few things equal impending doom than the plus sign.  And isn't that ironic?

3. Drug test.

This is of course coming from the point of view that testing positive is akin to passing the test. They're looking for it, you provided it, you therefore are positive.  I equate negative with failing.  If you don't agree- oh well, it's my list.  Just go with me.  Anyway, this is also a good one to fail.  It's kind of hard to get a job if you fail one of these.  People lose medals and titles for failing.  If you want to keep your gold medal or job, I suggest failing.

And that's it for my piece on not achieving.  It gets tiring trying to pass every little test.   Remember, in the rare instance, failure is the desired outcome.  I'm off to go try and recall what I've learned about the Neurological and Cardiovascular systems because in the case of my final, failure is NOT an option but passing and high blood pressure is.  

Extern-a-go-go.

I really have no feasible explanation for the subject title.  It was the first thing that popped into my head after spending 8 straight hours at school today.

It's crunch time for the Saddleback nursing students and guess who's got two thumbs, a perforated eardrum (that has finally scabbed over, ewww) and no motivation to study for the rest of the semester?  (Picture me with my two thumbs pointing at me...) That's right, yours truly!

I just had my second to last lecture today, over the gastrointestinal system, a.k.a "Guts and Butts" according to one of my favorite professors.  On a scale of 1-10 on the interesting information scale, I give ulcers about a -4.2.  I also had my final clinical evaluation, which consisted of my clinical instructor and I talking for about 15min about my vacation this last weekend.  Great job on IV's this semester, and how was wine tasting on beach cruisers?

But the best news is this: I was just chosen for one of the last two externships for the summer, and it is at the local San Clemente hospital.  So excited!!!  I had applied for externships at other hospitals and never even got a phone call.  I had talked myself out of it and was looking forward to a summer of leisure and part-time work.  Then at the 11th hour, San Clemente decided that they would take two externs.  I had to interview, because I will be an employee of the hospital for 9 weeks.  It's pretty rad, I will be doing pretty much what I have been doing on Thursdays in clinical only I won't have homework and I will be getting paid.  Hot action!!  Getting paid to be a nursing student!!!  The one drawback at this time: my orientation is on May 19th... the same day as my final.  Since neither can be done another day, the powers that be have decided that the only solution is for those with orientation that day must take their final at 5:30am (freaking TWO HOURS before everyone else!!!!) and then be at the hospital at 8am for orientation.  It's not even really light yet at 5:30am!!!!!  Do they know how early I have to get up to be there and not just up, but dressed for orientation???  I didn't even realize it until I typed it.  I'm going to go cry now.

But, to end on a high note- for the first Wednesday in a very long time, I don't have to go to bed at 8:30pm tonight because I don't have clinical anymore.  Laker party at our house!!!