Two videos that make me exceedingly happy.

Jumping Jacks FAIL! All those guys get an A for effort. Even though they apparently can't just FOLLOW WHAT THE LEADER GUYS ARE DOING. Wow.

And then there is this one.

Just fantastic.

Today I am frantically finishing up a project and a paper, both due in a couple hours. Peds has absolutely flown by. We had our final clinical evaluations yesterday and last time I checked it's still January. This is an abbreviated abbreviated quarter and even though it's semi-crunch time right now I'm still less stressed out than I was in Med-Surg!

Cookie Monster.

I've made more cookies in the past month than I've made in my entire life. I'm not counting all those times when I "made" cookies with my grandma who did all the legwork while I played with my dollhouse and licked the spoons. I'm referring to the batches of cookies made from scratch in my adult life. Up until now I had made maybe.... three? And this month alone I've made five. My recent cookie obsession is apparently still going strong.

Creepy Crawlies

A friend of mine recently found out that her little girl had nits. Yes, nits. The things that come before lice. So she paid the local Lice Lady (which I didn't know existed) to come and give her daughter (and her siblings) extensive (and expensive) lice treatment. And then she took every article of clothing and bedding and washed it in hot hot HOT water. And threw out the hairbrushes and replaced them. And then threw out those hairbrushes and replaced them. And bug-bombed the house. And bug-bombed the car. Twice. And vaccumed and sprayed abrasive cleaning products all over every piece of furniture that couldn't be thoroughly washed. And put all the stuffed animals that couldn't be washed in bags to suffocate any critters that might be hanging on. And had her husband check her head every night before going to bed.

She was at the laundromat, walking up and down the aisle to feed quarters to the 16 dryers she was using when she realized maybe she had gone crazy. And she told me this story and I laughed.

And then last week at clinical it turned out that we may or may not have been exposed to lice. Lice, that is, AND SCABIES. And since there is actually a bit of downtime at clinicals we all were looking up exactly what that might mean and exaclty what we might have to do.

Some things I learned:

- Head lice can change to become the color of the host's hair.

- Females can lay 6-10 nits per day. Which, while not an overwhelming number, is WAY TOO MANY.

- There is also a type of lice called Body Lice who like to live in clothes and just crawl back onto the person when they want to feed. To me this seems worse, since they're not just localized on your head, they're on your body. Or not! They already had lunch so they're partying in your shirt. Try and catch 'em now!

- Scabies- mites that burrow under your skin- need close physical contact to be spread. But! They can also be spread through a handshake. Or, say, using the toilet after someone who has them.

- Also, there is a type called Norwegian Scabies. The difference between those and regular scabies? Pretty much just sheer numbers-- if you get infected with regular scabies you have about 10-20 bugs on any given day. But with Norwegian scabies you get thousands to MILLIONS. Which makes your skin thick and crusty, hence their other name Crusted Scabies.

Lice and scabies, though not fatal, cause extreme itchiness. Interestingly, thinking one might have caught lice and/or scabies can also cause extreme itchiness! My hairs would tickle the back of my neck and I would leap out of my chair and swat at my head. Which made me look like an awesome, really together, professional nursing student. I had an intense case of the heebie jeebies. I know, I know. I'm in nursing school- I just need to get over it. I've had experiences with plenty of other infectious diseases but for some reason the lice and scabies creeped me out the most. Most diseases are caused by tiny buggly wugglies that somehow get in you and mess shit up. But if they are bacteria or viruses they're attacking your cells and whatnot, it seems much less concrete and more a collection of symptoms rather than an actual organism. But if they are actual bugs..... THAT YOU CAN SEE? GAAH!

So I went home, threw my clothes in the washer on HOT. And then took the hottest shower I have ever taken in my life. It was scalding. I would put my head under the water and try to count to at least 10 before moving away or slightly decreasing the heat. On my head I used hand soap, shampoo, two kinds of body wash, and bubble bath.

I thought that if one abrasive ingredient in my soap didn't kill the vermin, then another surely would. Or else I just wiped out the ones that are sensitive to soaps and heat and left behind the resistant ones who will now mate and form an army of lice-scabies-super-bugs....

Birthday Wishies

Happy Birthday little shmooshiepants! For some reason I have not a single photo of you on this computer so I stole one from your mama. You are a lucky little boy to be born today, on a very cool lady's half birthday.... Anyhow, I love you and I can't wait to see you some time soon. And you should be getting a little birthday something in the mail shortly. It will be a few days late because I bought it a month ago, wrapped it 2 weeks ago, and it has not quite made it to the post office. But I'm fashionably late like that. And so are you, considering your due date....

Happy Birthday!

Pot Head

When I moved into my apartment I had to buy some kitchen supplies since my roommate didn't think it was such a good idea for me to just take her stuff when I moved out. Among other things, I purchased a set of pots and pans. I thought I got a really great deal at Wal-Mart-- a set of 2 saucepans, a skillet, and a dutch oven pot and all of their lids for about $17. Amazing!

Not so amazing, as it turns out. First, the little pot I used most often started shedding its teflon coating. I tried to prevent it by using it as carefully as I could and never stirring with metal utensils and giving it an authoritative talking-to. And then it got to the alarming point wherein I would sit down for lunch and realize I was eating a hearty bowl of tomato-soup-with-teflon-flakes.

So I got rid of that pot. But one by one the others have begun to follow suit and, judging by the increasingly chipped pots and pans in my kitchen, I'm certain I have eaten more than one chicken-breast-with-nonstick-sauce or bowl of macaroni-and-teflon.

As someone who tries to be health-conscious but only when it is convenient, I decided to put an end to this. I went to Target and upgraded. For $70, I bought a whole new set of stainless steel pots and pans. So, hopefully, no more poison dinners for me! Lunches from the hospital cafeteria, however? That's a different story.

Obamanation

Today is quite historic. All I really have to say is YAY! Though we are supposed to remain "politically neutral" at school, there is definitely a new energy in the air, a collective smile. Yes. We can.

Here's to you Mr. Prez. Please make these next 4 years count.

More evidence of my royal blood.

When it comes to shoes, I am a little like the Princess and the Pea. If a shoe is ever so slightly uncomfortable, does not have adequate support for my lovely high arches, cuts at any part of my feet, has too loose or too tight straps, slips off my heels, or pinches my toes you can bet your boots (ha!) that my delicate little feet will notice. And then take them off. I might be wearing these


but from the way I am whimpering, you might think I was wearing these


or these


or these.


Which basically means that I'm insanely picky about the shoes that I buy (but then aren't we all?) and I might not actually even wear shoes that I own if I decide they aren't comfortable enough. I have a pair of strappy heels that I bought for my junior prom and to this day I still wear them since they are the most comfortable "going out" shoes I own. They used to be a sparkly silver color but now they're more of a muted gray, with stains from the multitude of drinks that have spilled on them and scuffed, nearly nonexistent heels from the miles and miles that they have carried me. Usually, I will coordinate my outfit with some other, newer, cuter pair of shoes and then, when the cab is downstairs and everybody is traipsing out the door, I will run back to my room and grab the old shoes.

So is anybody surprised to learn that I've been wearing the same pair of casual sneakers pretty much every single day for the past, oh, four years?

In my mind, they still look something like this.


However, my mother informed me that they actually look more like this.



And so I have been looking for new shoes for awhile now. But I believe I have noted my picky nature toward footwear in general and casual shoes are no exception-- they have to be cute, obviously, but also exceedingly comfortable for me to want to wear them on a daily basis. I define comfort thusly: PRECISELY the right size being neither slightly too big nor too small, able to be worn with socks, free from "quirks" (such as having the tongue thingy constantly bunch over to one side or the other like my Pumas), having adequate laces or other fastening devices as well as arch support, and giving me that indefineable sensation of Rightness on my footsies.

And today my mom bought me these.


And I love them! They are comfy and adorable and twinkly and purple and even cuter than the picture shows and did I mention comfy?? So yay!

And now since I'm feeling rather superficial and ridiculous with my "oh poor me, I have so many shoes I just don't know what to do with myself!" here is a web site about a sneaker recycling program. And one about donating shoes to people who don't have any.

Not that you'll need it

Okay. So. I've been back at school for a little over a week. Back to the grind of classes, study time, and clinicals. And it's been tough but, really, not so bad. I think that Med-Surg was supposed to be one of the hardest quarters and I survived it and now everything looks to be going at a more gentle pace. I'm sure it will still be tough, but it's kind of nice to know that I'm over halfway done with the RN portion so technically things are in the downhill trajectory, if this program were some sort of mountain, that is.

I've been thinking of the applicants for next year's class who will be coming for their interviews within the next couple of weeks. I can't believe it was a whole year ago that I spent several instances sitting across the desk from someone, enthusiastically expressing why I wanted to be a nurse practitioner and what my strengths and weaknesses were and how I thought my previous experiences had shaped me and why I was just the best of the best of the most amazing and PICK ME PICK ME DAMMIT!! Looking back, I really REALLY had no idea what I was getting myself into. I think that's true of any school program-- you can't know how it will be until you are in it-- but it just makes me grateful that even though I didn't completely understand what it would be like or how I would handle it or even what it truly meant to be a nurse, some quality in me or thing that I said shone through and let the admissiony people know that I meant business. Or something.

And I've realized that I really do like this program. It was a good choice for me and that makes me happy to know. Since I applied to several other schools, I spent a lot of time last year agonizing over which place would be the best fit. In the end, it really came down to my school and Yale. And I was really on the fence until the last possible moment I could have turned in my intent to register forms. Yale had a really great program and a lot of things I was looking for but I decided not to go there based on location, cost, and several specific characteristics about the program with which I won't bore you.... So now it's nice to look back and realize that I'm still happy with my decision and this is the right place for me. It's also kind of nice to be able to say "I'm so glad I didn't go to Yale."

So now I'm here. And I'm glad. Sooo to all you little interviewees... good luck!!!

milk & cookies

Tomorrow is day 1 of peds clinicals. I'm pretty nervous because it's the new quarter, I'll be at a new hospital with a new clinical instructor and working with little wee ones for the first time. I love kiddies but I've never really had this kind of role around them so I don't really know what to expect there AND we're going to be able to give out meds which is rather nervewracking.

So tonight I am preparing by eating some milk and cookies because (a) it's delicious and relaxing and (b) it's helping me get into kiddiewinkle mode, or at least that's what I'm telling myself. I don't know what happened but something in my taste buds changed over Christmas break. I used to be the kind of person who didn't crave sweets. Ever. I would choose a bowl of mashed potatoes over ice cream every time. And if I felt like maybe I wanted something sweet like a donut, just smelling it would usually satiate me. But over break that changed and I don't know why. All I wanted to eat were cookies. Chocolate chip cookies, M&M cookies from the mall, and most especially my mom's gingerbread cookies. Cookies. They were so incredible. Little bites of happiness. Where had they been all my life?? Cookies! I'd been thinking maybe it was just a "holiday" thing; like maybe I was craving sweets because it was Christmas. But nope. I'm back at school and it's still the case. COOKIES!!!!! So if you'll excuse me, I've got an ass that's not gonna fatten itself.

Gah!

The year is new and my break is juuuuust about over! I can't believe it. Approximately six weeks went by in naught but the blink of an eye. And am I totally prepared for school to start tomorrow?? Well.... I ordered my books yesterday so that's a start. And I went to this fantastic Japanese variety store called Daiso and bought some new little lunch boxes and notebooks. And chopsticks. Because I totally needed those. And an apron. Because the real reason I don't cook very much is that I didn't have an adorable apron to wear but now that I do I totally will. Yeah.
And now to continue my mad panic for this week. I wonder if I will remember how to be a nurse?