John Hancock

So we signed and signed and signed this morning and we are officially homeowners once again. I have very mixed feelings about it until I take a look at my nasty rental seafoam green carpet, and then I'm giddy with excitement. I think the (lack of) carpet, and having a cat door again are the two things I'm most excited about.

Don't ask me what the move-in date is. I don't know. I have two more exams to get thru before I can wrap my brain around packing boxes or wielding a paintbrush. Sometime after March 15th we'll be moving.

We will be celebrating tomorrow night by eating pizza on the floor in the new place.

Time for me to Fly

A few weeks ago my friend Nikol sent me an email that said "Should we take a trapeze class?" and my response was something like, "I think we must."

So today was the day. And I remembered two important things when I woke up. #1 I'm afraid of heights. #2 I have terrible motion sickness, and back and forth motion is the worst instigator. Too late.

I'm not sure what I was expecting--I think I pictured a room full of swinging monkey bars about 5 feet off the ground, and something more like a fitness class. I was not picturing a huge warehouse with a 3 story high trapeze bar and a big ol' net underneath. And even when we got there and saw the set-up, I figured first timers probably just played on the demo bar.

No. No, they don't.

The demo went something like this: "So you put your knees up on the bar and hang upside down, and then when it's time to dismount you make your legs go back and forth and then you tuck into a back flip. Got that? Okay, who's first?"

My first time up the ladder, with my motion sickness bracelet firmly in place, I was shaking like a leaf and pretty sure I would be coming right back down that ladder in a few minutes time. And then once I was up there I was even more sure of it. Even typing this now my heart is beating 1000 times a minute.

But then I jumped.

And HELL YEAH!!! Why was flying trapeze not on the career aptitude test in high school???? Because living in a warehouse making curry with a bunch of housemates at night and doing flying trapeze every day sounds like soooo much more fun than nursing school.

So besides learning that I'd been cheated out of a very rewarding career, the most important lesson I learned during flying trapeze? When your instructor tells you to do something, you do it, and you do it when they say to do it, and you don't think about it even for a second. So maybe when your friends tell you to jump off the cliff, you can use your best judgment, ponder it for a few minutes, and choose not to. But when your trapeze instructor says, "Hang upside down by your knees and then let go!" You do it, even if it is the most ludicrous thing you've ever heard and is compeletely NOT what you would usually do.

But when you do it exactly like they say, then the blond guy from This is Spinal Tap swings along to catch you.

I will definitely be going back. And Nikol can continue to email me with her crazy suggestions.

A 2 Diet Coke day

I'm peaking my head out of the hole I've been in for the last week, but only for a quick breather before I go back down.

Clinicals are great because we get to actually see patients and pretend to be their nurses. But they are also hard because when I come home from my 8 hour shifts at the hospital, I have another 8 hours of clinical paperwork to complete. And then the same thing again the next day.

We also had a big exam today, which meant I had to start studying for that as soon as I finished my clinical paperwork last week....and I studied right thru the weekend until I went to bed last night. So I've been a lot of fun lately.

I took my exam this morning, sat thru a 5 hour lecture, and then went directly to the hospital to get my patient assignment for the week. And you know what that means--as soon as I finish making dinner, I'll be starting it all again. Clinical paperwork tonight, clinicals tomorrow, clinical paperwork tomorrow night, clinicals the next day, rinse and repeat.

I'm so tired thinking about it.

Bits and pieces

Life in our house is crazy right now. It's good, but it's crazy. On Monday I woke up and thought, "If someone decided to send child protective services to my house today, they would take my kids away from me." The house was a disaster. And there were Trisquits in the cupboard. Only Trisquits.

The other day we were sitting at the dinner table and the girls were arguing over something. Madeline was making a pretty strong case for why that thing should be hers, as big sisters are so good at doing. She finished off her argument with "And it's even in the shape of an M, which is for Madeline."

Without missing a beat, and with the perfect amount of exasperation and eye-rolling, Amelia flipped it upside down and said, "No it's in the shape of a W, for what-ever."

(Have I mentioned how much I love the black pepper Trisquits?)

Today I had one of those "forgot to go to class all quarter and now it's the final" moments. I decided my lab was going to be easy today, so I spent the morning cleaning, doing laundry, and going for a run, with just a glance at my textbook. I walked into the lab and said to a classmate, "We should be out of here early today--we're just doing central lines." And she said, "Well yeah. And complex dressing changes and TPN and wound care. I've heard there's 4 quizzes today." Wah???? Good thing lab is pass/fail.

And so I'm accomplishing nothing

What I have to do:

Finish writing my nursing concept map (due today)

Start working on the reading and case studies for Monday

Finish the reading for last week that I've been neglecting

Get in a workout

What I want to do:

Organize closets and cupboards

Surf the web for decorating ideas

Go skiing

I even wore my ugly white nurse shoes

I think my excitement about my new clinical rotation got lost in the stress and excitement about the house. But this quarter we are working in the hospital in "med-surg" which is where ya'll go after surgery, or when you have swine flu or pneumonia, or when you're alcoholic a$$ is found face-down in the gutter outside the bar.

I have an amazing clinical instructor this quarter. No matter how "dumb" our mistakes, she is constantly reassuring and encouraging us, reminding us that we are students and that every mistake we make is a learning opportunity (but more importantly, to call her for assistance before doing anything we are uncomfortable with!!!). And I've discovered that all those hours I spent volunteering at the hospital and then working as a doula, have made me MUCH more comfortable in the hospital setting than I was in the nursing home last quarter.

This week we were assigned our own patient to take care of. Four months ago I would not have thought it possible that I'd be ready to take care of a patient one day post-op already. But guess what? I was! Yesterday the patient's nurse kept a pretty close eye on me and taught me quite a bit, but today I was almost entirely on my own. I took vital signs, did my assessments (i.e. listened to her heart, lungs, assessed her pain level, etc.), helped her shower, charted everything under the sun, and gave her her medications including her injections! Guess what? Giving an injection to a human is almost exactly the same as practicing on hot dogs in my kitchen. Weird.

I'm certain every week won't go as well as the last two, but I'm so glad I had a couple of good weeks to get my feet under me. And I'm really glad that the last two weeks have affirmed that I really am on the right path.

But more than anything I'm glad I had on these ugly, but very washable shoes today.

Mutual Acceptance

So they fully accepted, and the house will be ours on the 25th of February! As long as the inspection and appraisal go well.

See how I like to do that? Get all excited, and then kick myself in the knees. "Oh, I don't know. Maybe in the inspection we'll find out the attic is full of raccoons and bats and porcupines. Maybe the appraiser will decide the house isn't worth the price of a stick of gum." (Say that in your best Eeyore voice.)

I'll show you the pictures if you promise you can look past the green carpet. Look deeper. There's hardwoods under there, and they have the potential to be as beautiful as the hardwoods in the living room.

And I know that wallpaper is in style again, but sadly, I will not be keeping the wallpaper in the laundry room. (I am contemplating keeping the wallpaper in the bathroom though. It's almost cool.)

So there you go. I told you there's plenty of room for you to come visit me. Unless we decide to convert the guest room to a habitat for the raccoons and bats and porcupines. And we might.