I Have A Bad Memory

I can't find my watch ANYWHERE. And, I don't know the last time I wore it. =( I don't wear it to work, because I don't want to get food on it/get it wet. I don't wear it to the hospital because I don't want BODILY fluids on it. I wear it to school sometimes...but I don't ever take it OFF. I thought it might be at S's, since I've gone over there to swim...but she can't find it. I've looked in my car, in both bathrooms, in the bedrooms, the kitchen ... my purses, my bags, in my shoes.

I put up a REWARD sign at school ... I just hope I find it. You peeps that see me on a regular basis, do YOU remember seeing it not on my wrist?

=(

Fire Burning on the Dance Floor

No matter WHAT happens in nursing-school-land over the next few days ... I am having a girl-only dance party next week.

With a special kick-ass dance to this song.

Keep your fingers crossed for me!!!
-D

Quick Spazz Attack

This week is promising to be absolutely horrific - so I'll take JUST a sec to spell out the awfulness:

Monday - class, patient info at hospital, patient paperwork, do notecards on Fluid and Electrolytes
Tuesday - clinical all day, practice health assessment, review all skills learned during the semester, study all notecards
Wednesday - Skills validation on ALL skills learned this semester, study notecards, do review questions for test
Thursday - TEST FIVE, get details on final
Friday - begin weekend-long study session for final, work (HOPEFULLY NOT...I'm trying to get this covered...)
Saturday & Sunday - Study!!!!
Monday - FINAL

Sigh. Say a little prayer for me!!! Love you all...

Working Girl

I realize that I work in the service industry, and we are there to serve people - no matter if they are rude, cheap or unappreciative they may be. However, sometimes it's VERY difficult to be nice to your next table when the last one has SCREWED you on the tip. Sigh.

Example: Last night my first table tipped me 15%, then the second table tipped 10%. Next, a nice family of four was sat in my section. Two women got the special, the father had fried shrimp and the overweight son had a blue cheese burger and creamed spinach...and then proceeded to put the creamed spinach on the burger, along with the mayo and mustard he had wanted. (This post is NOT about the gross eating quirks that some people display, but I could write an entire BOOK about that...) They seemed ... grumpy. They just weren't animated at all. And that is fine. What is NOT fine is the fact that they paid with a $100-dollar bill (asked for change since the bill was only $67), and the proceeded to leave me $3 in cash on the table.

THREE DOLLARS. That is less than a 5% tip!!!

I'm not going to get into the politics of race at restaurants. It's nasty and mean and horrible. I'm just going to say that everyone should at LEAST tip 15%. Servers make VERY little money per hour, and tips are our livelihood. I actually don't make enough of a paycheck to have FEDERAL TAXES taken out. Literally I'll get an $8 check for two weeks worth of work - the taxes and medicare and social security are too high to have any money left over.

So please, tip your server.

Dear SYTYCD...

That whole Katie Holmes dance-thing was not spectacular. In any way, shape or form. We just saw that KICK-ASS Mia Michaels routine, and now you give me Katie Holmes shimmying around in a tuxedo jacket? PUH-LEASE.

Also, I am pissed at ALL OF YOU AMERICA. YOU DIDN'T VOTE FOR JASON. Ok, I didn't vote for Jason either, but I am a 25 year-old woman and you are a bunch of teeny-boppers. You should have been impressed with his Jacob-like face and very nice torso. Sigh. Stupid America.

MMmmmmk. That's all.

Putting Your Face On

"Putting your face on" is how one of my nursing instructors describes the preparation before going into a patient's room - creating a nonplussed expression that doesn't give way to the grossness, sadness, ugliness or awesomeness that we see every day. We have to remain professional ... at least until we get home.

When M got home tonight, I broke down and couldn't keep my "face" on any longer. Today my 85 y/o dementia patient got to me. More so, his well-to-do wife got to me. The way she looked at him. The way he smiled back with a senile expression. Her protectiveness, her gratefulness when I helped. I couldn't help but think about M and me ... and what it would feel like to have to go through all of that. It hurt, and I cried.

Then I called my grandma in PA - she fell recently and I wanted to call and check up on her. She probably won't remember I called, and she only stays on the phone for a bit, but I felt better when I got off. Like a bit of a weight was lifted.

Sigh. Nobody said nursing was going to be easy. (In fact, MANY MANY MANY people have told me otherwise.) But, I think it will be worth it.

Face-Blogging on the Twitter-Scape

(Or, How all of my friends keep in touch)

I am wired due to the fact I have clinical tomorrow, and so I posted "ummmmm too excited/freaked to sleep AGAIN. One day clinical won't keep me up all night... right?? Anyone???" on Facebook. Three seconds
later my NEWLY BOARD-CERTIFIED AND WORKING NURSE friend, N g-chatted me and we had the following convo:

N: why are you so excited??

me: just worked up i guess - tomorrow i have a 85 y/o who admitted with a DVT. he has Alzheimer's and Parkinson's,and really there is nothing i can do for him!

so I'm like hmmmmm what-will-i-do-all-day-tomorrow worked up

N: gotcha.what kind of floor are you on? med-surg?

me: yup -its usually renal/diabetic,but of course i have the non-renal, non-diabetic patient. he is on like 17 meds ...but really, there is nothing extra-wrong with him, ya know?

N: right.thats your typical med-surg. at least you get to learn a bunch of meds!

me: yup yup! hahaha - our paperwork isn't due until Monday, due to the fact i get a FIVE day weekend, so I kind of half-assed my paperwork for tomorrow. I didn't write up my patho-phys and left off my multivitamin drug card. I'm walking on the edge i tell ya.

Nikki: haha sounds like it!

Yes. Nursing school has reduced me to thinking that not doing all my homework and leaving off a MULTIVITAMIN drug card is walking on the edge. Sigh.

Please excuse me while I reminisce about the girl I once was... OK, who am I kidding? I have ALWAYS been a dork who plays by the rules. Not doing all my homework IS walking on the wild side. N, M, and S can all tell you. =)

K. Wellllll I guess I'll review how to do sub-cutaneous injections! Sweet! NEEDLES!

G'nite.

Robert Pattinson Vs. Harry Potter

Later on I'll talk about my day in the Operating Room, and about how high our F-ing power bill is for this month, or about how AWESOME Harry Potter 6 was, but for now I'll just leave you with this video:

Late Night with Jimmy Fallon: Robert Pattinson Vs. Harry Potter

This video IS SO FREAKING FUNNY.

Watch, and enjoy your Friday!

This is Awesome

London's Trafalgar Square is one of my all-time favorite places. It could be because London's kick-ass National Gallery is right there, or the fact that M and I saw a De Beers commercial shot right there, of the fact that Pret A Manger is right across the street... Anyway, it's awesome.

Besides the very cool Nelson stature and the infamous lions that reside in the square, there is a "fourth plinth" that's home to specially commissioned artwork. Past works include Allison Lapper Pregnant and Model for a Hotel.

Currently there is a great installation - real people. 100 real people over the next 24 days, 24 hours per day. Check it out in REAL TIME at One & Other - I promise you'll be amused/amazed/astonished.

New Week, New Outlook

Thanks to the love and support of my family and friends, I made it through last week. It was gross and awful and full of failing things and feeling like a fish-out-of-water, but it's over. AND, I still have the opportunity to rock it out on another quiz, test, and the final - so I'll just buckle down and do it.

On an exciting (to me, at least) note, I get to observe at the OR tomorrow!!!! This is SUPER exciting to me, since I have been mildly obsessed with surgeries ever since I was a little girl. When I was about four years old, I would ask my mom to watch the surgeries on TV - she would turn on some health channel and I'd contentedly watch an open-heart surgery. Add to that the imaginary "carrot people" that I talked about, and no wonder my grandmother thought I was strange... I like to call it creative.

Some Letters of my Own

Today's post was inspired by The Tooth Fairy's Adventures, and her latest post.

Dear staff nurse that I helped yesterday:
I know I am just a first-semester nursing student, but you don't have to look at me like I'm an idiot, especially when you don't have YOUR shit in order.
Love, the eager/terrified nursing student from yesterday

Dear Clinical Instructor,
Just because you want to go on vacation doesn't mean you get to rearrange my schedule and make this week a living hell. You are a VERY nice person, but I am seriously pissed at you.
Love, the student who was trying not to cry in post-conference today

Dear bestest-friend S,
Thank you for listening to me be very upset today on the phone. I heart you bunches and bunches.
Love, DD

Dear M,
I love you SO MUCH and I feel awful that we don't get to spend as much time together as I would like. Sometimes I feel guilty that I'm studying insetad of hanging out with you, but I know you understand and want me to do well - which makes me feel worse when I screw up. Yes, I realize I'm rambling and a wee bit emotional today.
Love, your favorite wife

Dear makers of the Twilight Conversation Hearts,
You made a really cute product, and I love the Twilight-inspired sayings that you came up with ... but could you make the hearts taste a wee bit better than ABSOLUTE GROSSNESS?
Love, your paying customer

Dear Right Eye,
STOP F-ING TWITCHING. Gah.
- Dani

Awesome.

This picture was hanging up at the bank yesterday. I approve.


see more Lolcats and funny pictures

What a Wednesday

Today's post is presented by a tall Vodka Cranberry.

• My mom came down last night and spent the night, so she could move my little brother out of his frat house and into a new frat house (don't ask). Turns out his new frat house was uninhabitable, and now he's staying with M and me for a week while they fix all the crap wrong with it.
• Our house inspection is TOMORROW MORNING.
• This is the coolest idea ever. I don't know if I have the balls to undertake it. But hey, If Ann's Daughter can do it, so can I. A Deacon never says die!! (Or is that a Goonie?)
• The Teeter has crab legs on sale for $2.99 a pound. I WANT.
• SYTYCD is on in 5 minutes.
  
• My vodka cranberry is delish.