flux

More pathetic days at work.  Shocker?  Not at all.

Spent money at Sephora.  My pretty much #1 favorite thing to do.  I love buying make up and beauty products.  I got a refill on my foundation.  I use Clinique "Even Better" Make up in Linen.  Because I'm pale.  And that foundation gives me some moisture without being greasy.  I like it.  Thank you Sephora sales associate that suggested it to me months ago.

I also got my #1 favorite mascara ever.  Lancome Hypnose.  Of course I like it.  I've used it before, but not recently because it is pretty expensive.  I bought it in a set this time with eye liner and eye lash primer. It was a killer deal.  The mascara by itself is $25.  The set of full size products was $30.  Could.  Not.  Say.  No.

It was nice retail therapy after another crap-tastic work day.

Today I got Corey his main Christmas present.  I really had no idea what to get him.  He has basically everything he wants, so I just settled for something I knew he would like.  Hope I'm right. :/

I have to find a present for my mom.  She wants a vintage/"not mainstream or published" cookbook.  We'll see how successful I am at finding that.

If you have not watched "Marry The Night" by Lady Gaga in music video form, you should.

If you do not keep up with "Epic Meal Time," you should.  It is a YouTube channel of people who make epic meals.

*steps on soapbox* You know what upsets me?  When people get worked up about their problems and take it out by being hateful to others who have nothing to do with it. *steps down from soapbox*


--
"we were hoping for some romance, all we found was more despair"

i hate Christmas parties

Wow.  I have not posted in a month.  Not good.

I attribute it to getting cable and watching too much TV.  Which is a plausible explanation.  I watch Discovery Health all day.  Day after day of Trauma:  Life in the ER and I Didn't Know I Was Pregnant.

Or I go to work.  Which is even less exciting.  Staffing has been pathetic lately.  I just hope this weekend is better.

I have a couple Christmas presents bought and wrapped.  The other ones are sitting in the office of my apartment complex.  I am afraid I didn't get Corey enough :/  He is a hard one to buy for since he pretty much just gets whatever he wants.  I haven't thought of what to get him that he hasn't thought to get himself already yet.

On the other hand, Corey already got me exactly what I wanted for Christmas!  All I have wanted this year has been a Keurig coffee brewer.  He gave it to me early, because he knew I would find it and ruin the surprise.  So he ruined it for me :)  I'm not disappointed.  I have used it every day!  I love it just as much as I thought I would.  I have regular coffee, hot tea, and hot chocolate K-Cups so far.  And each cup really does come out absolutely perfect.

Other things that happened since I posted last:

Put up the Christmas tree

Went home for Thanksgiving

the shale pit near my Aunt's house

Dad and Ruby

Got a new couch

Yes, we tore the old couch to pieces

Very comfy!

There we are.  I will try to do a little better at posting this month.  Happy December!


--
"a snowflake on your cheek would make this Christmas so beautiful"

99 red balloons

I guess I will never be satisfied with how this blog looks.

It's like getting a new handbag every time.  I just have to try something different.

This is probably how I will spend my afternoon.

--
"floating in the summer sky"

17 magazine

Yesterday was my sweet little sister Ruby's birthday.  She turned seven!  I can't believe that child is already seven years old.  It makes me feel old.  I went home yesterday for her birthday.  We had cake and presents and lots of family.

I also got my hair done.  My cousin does the best hair.  She put the blond highlights back in, which I am thoroughly enjoying. :)

I look a little creepy, but you can at least see the highlights.

Today is, so far, the ideal rainy day (sort of).  I'm on stand by from work, so I'm getting some cleaning done since I can't really do anything else.  It's quiet and relaxing.  The "sort of" part of that is that Corey is home sick today from work.  He feels like it is a sinus infection.  No fever, but he feels really crummy.

Now I'm just waiting on that phone call saying, "Get your butt to work!"


--
"I say, if you're asking me, love is sacred, love is sweet"

carry that weight

Things that are happening today.

Pretty sure my dog farted the nastiest fart ever today. It smelled so horrible. I don't even have a hospital-people-poop-smell to liken it to. As bad as C-Diff poop, but different. Oh, it was awful. And she just kept chewing away on her little rawhide bone. That used to not be so little, but she eats them, you see. Well, she finished it today. Gross.

I hadn't used my Chi to style my hair in quite some time until yesterday. This has stemmed out of laziness, not dissatisfaction. I try to blow-dry my hair when I get out of the shower and make it look good, but after that, I am usually not motivated for Phase II styling which is, the Chi. Yesterday, I let the hair dry naturally to it's frizzy, weird-curly self. So it had to be straightened, and you can't blow-dry-style dry hair. Chi is faster and easier anyway. And my hair stays stick straight no matter what, it seems like. I slept awful weird last night and I'm pretty sure my neck got sweaty (usually leading to funny looking kinks in the hair in that area), but my hair stayed straight and smooth. It's like a dream. And to think, the crazy girl at the mall tried to tell me that her only-sold-at-the-mall-by-snake-oil-salesmen straightening iron was better than my hot pink shimmer Ultra Chi. Ha. Wrong. Nothing is better than this.

Nothing, I tell you.

I am having another unmotivated day.  I have to do a load of work-clothes laundry, though.  I work all weekend (bleh) and would rather not go in dirty clothes or naked.  I really hate doing housework.  It sucks a lot.

I have been playing Smurfs Village on my iPhone a lot lately.  A friend at work told me about it, and being a person who is always looking for a way to kill some time, I downloaded it.  I currently have a happy little village of farming smurfs who have a meth lab, a special bakery, the timber mill, the workshop, and a mine.  And an abundant field where they can grow "crops."  

Corey also made me start playing Family Feud.  I can't stop.

Also, as I'm sure any non-blind person can tell, I redid my blog.  I just needed something new to look at.  I found a website called ShabbyBlogs.com that has some very crafty looking designs on there.  I wish they had more tutorials.  What they do have is wonderful.  So after a combo of figuring out how to do some stuff on Blogger and fiddling with how to do the header in Photoshop, I got it how I want it.  I like the change.

....

...............

..

I wish I had more money.

--

"you never give me your money, you only give me your funny papers"

princess of china

I can't stop saying how particularly unmotivated to write I have been lately.

First, I'll share a video I took of Corey torturing Abigail:

I got the newest Coldplay album.  Via iTunes pre-order :))  I really like it!

See what I mean?  Not too terribly much to talk about.  Work has been same old, same old with more bad days than good.  Bad staffing has made everyone hate our floor and look for the first opportunity to jump ship.  It's sad, because this job could be a really great one if we had enough people to be able to do our jobs well without wanting to shoot ourselves at the end of the day.

I'm thinking about re-designing my blog.  I like the font style finally, so I may look for different backgrounds and headers and whatever.  That might be my project today even though I should be doing laundry...

--

"you're holding in your hands the two halves of my heart"

workin' for a livin'

Things lately have been borderline good and bad.  I'll only list off and talk about the good things, though. I never meant this blog to be a place where I complain about life.

1.  Well, Corey got a new car.  New to him.  It's a 2008 Mitsubishi Galant.  Certainly an upgrade from his truck.  He feels so great now having a reliable mode of transportation.  I have to say I'm jealous of the reliable transportation bit.  My car has been iffy for a long time, and I'm hoping it's my turn soon to get a new car.

2.  I upgraded to iOS 5.  It is totally awesome.  I like the new notifications.  I LOVE iCloud.  My favorite feature of iCloud is syncing my calendar.  That is such a beautiful thing.  iMessage is really fun.  Corey and I message each other across the apartment from my iPhone to his iPad.  I just love everything about it.  Now if I could only pair it with a new iPhone 4s with the awesome camera and Siri.  Wouldn't I love having a personal assistant to talk to and control my iPhone that way?  I'm way jealous of the folks getting that phone today.

3.  Work is still good and bad.  Good thing is, I'm starting to get to precept new nurses, so I make more money and have better days at work.  Love that.  Bad thing is, more nurses keep leaving, so we're more short-staffed.  That sucks majorly.  I'm scheduled to take the nurse preceptor class in January, though, so maybe I'll be assigned a regular orientee and keep that bigger hourly wage on a regular basis.  That would be fabulous.  And my clinical ladder bonus is coming up in January.  That will be a down payment on a new car for me.  I hope so, anyway.

I've had more and more days in between posting lately.  I'm not sure why (too busy?  unmotivated?  boring life?), but I am going to attempt to be more consistent.  I'll find some piece of new to discuss at least briefly.


--
"some days won't end ever, some days pass on by"

golden slumbers

A very sad thing happened today.

Steve Jobs was a brilliant person who put in the work to make his dreams real.

He changed how we do everything if you think about it.

I'm proud to say my iPhone is seemingly surgically attached to my hand, and that I am typing this blog post on my MacBook Pro.

I see people everyday struggling and dying because of cancer.  It is heartbreaking every time a person does not win their battle.  This time is absolutely no different.

God bless him and his family and friends.

And long live Apple Computer.

--

"sleep pretty darling do not cry, and I will sing a lullaby"

eleanor rigby

What a long day.

I made chili today, though. Got the recipe off a blog I follow. I realized that I had all of the ingredients in my kitchen and decided to go for it.

Let me go ahead and say chili is not a strongpoint in cooking for me. The last time I tried it was a disaster.

Well, I did it this time and it was great! I thought so anyway.


--
"where do they all come from"

help!

I'm considering making a new blog within this one.  Kind of like a serial newspaper article.

I'll have to figure out how to embed it within one of these pages.

I want it to be loosely based on my adventures at work.  Because of privacy issues, all names will be changed, and certain details will be dramatized and changed to make it unlikely that one could figure out which patient I was talking about.

I guess it will be kind of like a soap opera.  In blog form.

I'll have to figure out just how much I can muddle the facts to make it not a HIPAA violation to post the stories.

--
"you know I need someone"

all i ask of you

I have had a boring life the past couple of weeks.  [although somehow this post became a novel, so I will break it up in the middle with a picture of Corey and Abigail]

Corey got a new gun.  He traded his old pistol for a different one.  He is very happy with it.  I think we will go to the gun range and shoot it tomorrow, since we are both off of work :)

Work has been same old, same old.  I am not necessarily complaining about that, because I would rather it be boring than be interesting because something bad happened to a patient.  Boring days are good days for the patients.

I had an orientee with me this week.  I have never had one before.  I've just precepted students in the past.  She was at the point where she was taking a portion of our patient group by herself, so all I really had to do was check up on her and answer questions and help her with tasks so she stayed caught up.  She reminded me what it was like to be a new grad.  She had all the knowledge, it just takes longer when you're brand new to bring it all out at the right times.  She was doing great though.  And she got a lot of skill experience this week, since she had a busy little group of patients.  Lots of IV starts and even dropping an NG tube.  She was great and smart and I hope I get to have her assigned with me again.

Some nurses do not like having students and orientees.  I like it.  It's like having a friend with you all day. It's good to have someone to talk to.  And it brings out the nerdy "I would be a teacher in another life" me.  I love teaching.  When I was the membership educator of my college sorority, it was the time of my life.  I love sharing knowledge about things I am passionate about.  I like to see that other people who just "like" what they are learning become passionate and love it like I do.  I feel that way about my sorority and I feel that way about nursing.  I also like being able to teach new graduate nurses that they actually are smart, they do know what they are doing, and they will be amazing nurses.

Some nurses (namely the ones who don't like taking students) do not possess the compassion, patience, and encouraging manner required to effectively guide new nurses into the work force.  That is unfortunate.  The new grads we have at our hospital are bright, caring people who need to be nurtured, not put down.  I recently saw one new graduate with a preceptor who made her feel like she was completely incompetent.  It was uncalled for and that nurse got a different job, which I am grateful for, because the orientee got a better preceptor.  She got a preceptor who I had a lot when I first started, so I know she's in excellent hands.  There was a lot of damage control to be done there.

I feel like I had a really unintended soap box speech there.  Sorry, blog.  You know how I can get on a tangent.

A good thing that happened this week (on Monday) was getting my hands blessed again by Sister Anita at work.  I am lucky to work at a Christian hospital that adds loving and serving people like Jesus to the already compassionate, serving nature of our job as nurses.  It reminds me to see people through the eyes of Jesus and realize that even the most cantankerous patient is a child of God who is in a very vulnerable part of life and needs compassionate care like anyone else.  I think working for God at work makes me a better nurse.  I will always carry these ideals with me no matter what organization I am getting paid by.

This has become a terribly long post.


--
"say you love me"

resistance

Well, I never came up with anything good to talk about, but I figured I could ramble for a while like usual and that would make a passable blog post.

Last night I think my flu shot caught up with me and I had the "flu like symptoms" that can occur after getting the vaccine.  I had a low grade fever, headache, and I puked.  Yummy.  Felt like crap and didn't get to sleep until 2, so I called in before I went to bed.  Still felt crappy when I woke up, so I felt a little justified.  I always feel guilty calling in, because I know they are always short nurses.

Despite still feeling a little weak-stomached, I am trying to make a good dinner tonight for Corey.  He has had some crummy days at work, and today had to work from 8am-7pm.  Yuck.  I would not trade him jobs.  Nope.  No thank you.

I am making barbecue boneless pork ribs (thank you, Sam's Club; and thank you, Corey for getting us that membership <3) with macaroni and cheese and green beans (or "fine French beans" as the packaging says; I got apparently the industrial size bag of frozen green beans).

I am going to have to learn how to shop better at Sam's.  I think I got way too much food, and it didn't help that I was hungry when I went.  I feel like I got enough food to last the winter.  I'll figure this out someday.

Dinner is done, so now I wait.  I wish they let him out of work on time :(


--
"take us away from here, protect us from further harm"

paradise

I've been pretty pathetic the past week posting a blog, but I'm really hoping to think of something good by tomorrow night.  We'll see.  It may be this weekend, and it may be Bama Week related.

That said:  F*** The Tide.

I am usually a fan of Nick Saban and the Tide, but not when they're playing the Hogs.  This week, they can go to hell.

:)  Love that SEC football.


--
"lying underneath those stormy skies, she said oh, I know the sun's set to rise."

sunday

Today I thought I would take some pictures of our pretty much all set up (finally!) apartment.  We both work full time, so this took a lot longer than normal.  We finally look like we didn't just move in.  I wanted to update from the first set of pictures I took when I first got everything in.

This one is of the living room.  We still have that silly projector.  Not sure how long we'll really keep that, since we both get pretty fed up with not having a regular TV with regular TV programming.  To watch the important things like the news and the Razorbacks. :)

Here is the kitchen.  Basically unchanged from move-in, but there's not a whole lot one can do with this space, you know.

The entryway/dining area.  Corey's old cafe table is still there, mostly because he still cannot decide what to do with it.  But one should notice that the stacks of tubs of all our crap are gone :)

Office/spare bedroom.  I finally put myself a desk in there!  Yes, that is a blue Angry Bird on my desk.  Corey keeps his red one at work.  I also have my set of "I graduated nursing school" documents on the wall. :)

That is pretty much it.  Our bedroom and the bathrooms, are pretty run-of-the-mill spaces.  No picture evidence needed.

*Soapbox note of the day:  If you are an AT&T customer and you have questions about the release of the iPhone 5 (if they even decide to call it that), DO NOT ask the people at the AT&T store.  Or the Verizon store for that matter.  These employees do not know anything about the iPhone 5 or it's release date or about when it will be released.  And if they do know, they can't tell you anyway, so don't ask.  You are an idiot.  Send Steve Jobs an email.  Or Tim Cook.  Since he's the CEO now.  Ask them.  Not your wireless provider.  You will piss them off and they will hate you for asking ridiculous questions.  Trust me, everyone will know when the new iPhone is coming out, and we will all find out at the same time, I guarantee it.  Likely through the iCloud to our minds.

Long story short, keep idiotic questions to yourself.

--

"I love you in the morning, when you're still hungover"

just a dream

A few things today.


1.
9/11/01

This day was terribly surreal.  I was only in the eighth grade, so I didn't quite understand the implications of what happened, but I knew that everything was going to be different from that day forward.  And it was.  The events that day and the actions of a few people rippled out so far and wide and affected things and people that we could not foresee and did not expect.  I'll never forget that day, nor will I forget the sense of togetherness I felt as a citizen of the US after we were attacked by terrorists.  This day taught me that as people, we have to love and take care of one another because anything can happen at any time.
Love thy neighbor.


2.
Second thing is a present I got myself this week.  

Lady Gaga heartbeats.  I had wanted these for quite some time, so the other day I decided to just get them.  I love them to death, and yes, I have listened to a lot of Lady Gaga through them :)

3.

Last thing is a meme.  Haven't done one in a while. :)

--

Obviously you're bored or you wouldn't be reading this. Now that you did, the rules are you MUST post your own answers! You must tag 5 people (not happening, obviously).

Favorite Color?

Yellow

Favorite Name?

Of what?  Let's go with girls' name:  Scarlett

Favorite Cartoon?

Scooby Doo

Favorite Ice Cream?

Chunky Monkey by Ben and Jerry's

Favorite Person?

Ruby Watson (my sister :) )

Favorite Number?

12

Favorite Store?

I have a lot of favorites:  Gap, Sephora, Antique stores, Mountain Man Gun & Pawn, TJMaxx, and probably a lot of others.  I really like to shop.

Favorite Sport?

To watch: College Football

To play: Softball

Favorite Animal?

All of 'em except spiders and snakes.  For real, though, I like monkeys and giraffes.  I love science and animals.

 

Favorite Food?

Grilled cheese

Favorite Drink?

Chocolate Milk.  Or coffee.  Or Green Machine Naked juice smoothie.

 

Favorite type of candy?

Jolly Rancher

Favorite Book?

Wuthering Heights.  Also like Harry Potter series, The Chronicles of Narnia, and Sense and Sensibility.

 

Favorite Magazine?

National Geographic

Favorite Flower?

Orchids of any kind or yellow roses.

 

Favorite Music?

Coldplay; favorite genre, I guess, is British alternative, but I am also known to love Lady Gaga, Katy Perry, and Justin Bieber.  And Relient K.

Favorite Movie?

It's a Wonderful Life

Favorite TV show?

House; also see:  The Tudors, Top Shot, COPS

 

Who you got this from?

Facebook friend, Geoff

--

"I was counting on forever, now I'll never know"

love is a long road

First thing:  I switched to the new Blogger interface and have been using it just to get acquainted with it (so maybe I won't hate it so much).  The only thing I hate is in this post window, the HTML view is not as easy to use.  Make that part like the old one, Blogger, and you will have my 100% approval. :)

So I survived all those million days at work.  God must have been on my side because my patient groups were better than I expected and made it possible for me to not die of exhaustion by the end of the stretch.  I finally had some normal days again.  Looking forward to my current 3 day off stretch helped, too. :)

I am finalizing my fantasy football team this week since the NFL season starts this weekend.  :))  I am getting used to the auction/keeper way of playing fantasy, which my league has never played before.  I play fantasy with the same people every year.  Friends from band. :)  Mainly Paul, Kate, Aaron and most of the same other friends of Paul's.

My team name is "My Fair Brady:  Season 2."  My team last year was My Fair Brady, so since I picked up Brady again as my starter, I used the same team name.  Half the fun of preseason is looking at the names others pick out for their teams.  This year's include "BLOUNT FORCE TRAUMA," "It's Mike Vick in a Box," and "Bull Moose Party."

I've never been like a fantasy champion or anything, but it sure is fun.

--

"give her one more chance to try and save my soul"

americano

I had a long past three days of work and no time to boot up the ol' Mac for blog posting.

Today is my day off after 3 in a row and I work tomorrow and Monday, too. After all this, I will need a serious vacation.

I'm trying to relax as much as I can at home today, while still catching up on laundering work clothes for Corey and I and trying to clean up the house some.

In my relaxation efforts, I found online a face mask based with baking soda and orange juice. It is supposed to clean pores and brighten the skin. I also added some banana pieces because another mask recipe said that was good for oily skin. My skin does get oily in the T zone. I have textbook combination skin. The mask sure smells yummy, we'll see what it does to my face.

For lunch I am making bagel pizza. I have this block of mozzarella left from a couple days ago and some tomatoes, so I put them atop a split whole wheat bagel with alfredo sauce.

Before baking:

After baking:

I put some parmesan cheese and garlic on top near the end of baking. I really just needed to bake long enough to melt the cheese and cook the tomatoes and garlic. This would probably taste even better on regular pizza crust or a plain bagel.

FYI, today is the opening day of college football!! I'll be listening to the Razorbacks on the radio, since the game is pay-per-view and I do not have tickets this year :( Anyway, Go Hogs!!!


 --
"I will fight for, I have fought for how I love you"

mrs. robinson

There are a couple parts to this post today.

I'll start with work last week. Holy shitake mushrooms Batman. Turns out the hospital doesn't care too much about outrageous nurse-patient ratios when it comes to hiring enough people to staff the floors. Thursday on telemetry each nurse had 8 patients. They are only supposed to have 5 each. Seriously?? We had 7 patients a piece that day with the charge taking a full group. This is getting absurd. Even more absurd is that on the next schedule everyone is going on maternity leave or going to new jobs entirely, so we are even more barebones staffed. And no one is being hired who can replace these positions. A slew of new grads were hired but they all just started orientation and will be on it for the next 2-3 months. Only a couple of experienced nurses were hired. Let's just say the people who are leaving the floor are certainly not regretting it at this point.

The next things for today are much more positive in nature. :)

The past few days I have been off of work and since Corey works 9 hours every day, I am home alone a lot. Which leaves me pretty bored most of the time. I am mostly unmotivated in keeping busy with household chores, so I have to find little projects and things to do to occupy myself.

Yesterday, I went to Ulta Beauty (which I had been planning on doing for a while) to look at nail polish. I had been itching to get some pink or purple glitter polish and maybe another muted pink color. I left with just that. I wanted a solid color polish that was infused with very fine shimmery glitter. I don't like the clear glitter polishes, because I think they look silly. I ended up getting OPI nail lacquer in "It's My Year" from the Miss Universe collection. It is the most perfect shade of royal purple that in the light shines with the finest gold glitter.

I love it especially since it doesn't take 1,000,000 coats to get it to look right. You can do it in one or maybe two to get it a little darker.

The other color, which I haven't worn yet, so I don't have a picture is OPI "Sparrow Me The Drama" from the Pirates of the Caribbean collection, I guess for the new movie. I picked it because it is a muted lighter pink.

So my nail polish adventure came to a close and now I've started another day of general boredom. I have been obsessive with my use of StumbleUpon! (see my Links page) and today I found Nutella Mug Cake. Which really just tastes like chocolate cake.

I think the Nutella just adds more chocolate flavor and some moisture to the cake. Since you make this in the microwave, it is pretty prone to drying out, which I can tell while I'm eating it. It is good, but make sure to put some chocolate sauce swirl or chocolate chips, too to make it more moist. Good for a quick microwave treat.

I have actually found a lot of really cool stuff stumbling, so I would definitely recommend it to anyone looking to find new things on the internet and try them out!


--
"heaven holds a place for those who pray"

alright

Corey got his MacBook!! Yes sooner than Friday, but I guess he just couldn't go another day without it :)

I got an incoherent text message and voicemail talking about it while I was at work and found him when I got home giddy as a schoolgirl. Needless to say it's a happy day at our house :)

I mentioned in my last post that work would give me more to talk about. It did today. But I'll wait until after tomorrow's adventures to explain.

--

FYI, I added pages to this blog. I have an "About" and a "Links" page. :) Corey made fun of me saying "wow, really advanced work, there..." Well, it's advanced for me.


--
"it's all the same to me as long as I'm with you"

yoü and i

This Friday we will have a new addition to the family :)

Corey bought himself a MacBook! We will have it on Friday. So now out little Apple family consists of (and this will show you how much we like to collect):

Corey's list:

iPod video 5th generation black

iPhone 3G

Aiport Extreme Base Station router

MacBook 13" unibody

iPad 2 16GB white

Anna's list:

iPod 4th generation white (no video) (My 1st iPod!!)

iPod classic black

Airport Express

iPhone 4 black (very easily my most prized possession; followed closely by the next item)

MacBook Pro 15" unibody

I suspect the next big computer purchase I personally make will be an iMac.  I'd like a desktop computer and an iMac does everything with zero desk clutter.

I have this strange aspiration to collect older Macs, too. Like I'd really like to have a clamshell iBook in turquoise. And a matching original iMac in the same color. The original Macintosh would be wonderful, also. The crown jewel of my collection would be an Apple II. I would play Oregon Trail on it forever and ever.

I may or may not come up with something more interesting to say later. I have work the next 2 days, so I'm sure some story will come out of that. Or Corey will have a weird dream in the meantime or something.

--

"this time I'm not leaving without you"

viva la vida

I've just come off working the worst weekend ever. Like holy crap.

Saturday got to a grand start when we were 2 nurses short on the floor. Meaning the charge nurse, Tina, took a full group of 6 patients and the rest of us took 7 (normal max is 6). And it wasn't a quiet weekend. All the crazy shit that could happen happened and everyone's unnecessarily overbearing family was there, too. Just to add fuel to the flames. They ended up calling in an admit-discharge (unheard of on the weekend) who was a huge blessing. Because of her, everything that needed to be done got done and I got to go home with a sliver of my sanity. Which I lost on Sunday. I got a whole new group where everyone was confused and incontinent. One was even combative and had to be moved to where he could have one on one attention. I got one immediately back (of course another bedrest total care), but she was the sweetest of the bunch and I was glad to have her.

Although, my Sunday ended splendidly. I got a surprise friendly face around 6:40pm. Corey drove up after work to see me and take me out to dinner at Mimi's Cafe. I was so happy to see him there after the weekend I had! My day was suddenly brighter and my patients and their families slightly less horrifying.

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Today has been good so far. I've mostly just been relaxing, but I was productive in getting Abigail a bath. She hated it of course, but at least now she is clean and smells good.

This has clearly tired her out for the time being. After the torture of being de-shedded, bathed, brushed and made to relax outside on the porch to dry off, I guess she deserves a little nap. :)


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"be my vision, my sword and shield"

moves like jagger

I love retail therapy.

I got some toys today courtesy of Corey :) He got me a much needed new screen protector for my phone and some new shoes!! I have wanted the shoes for a while. They are for work: Reebok ZigTech. In fun lime green. The following is just a picture from the website. Mine are silver in the main body of the shoe with lime green on the Reebok logo and the zig zag sole.

I got some obscenely neon socks to match them. Fab, I know. :)

I also had to get a new phone case today. My old one was too soft and didn't fit my phone snugly. It sat on the edge of my screen protector pushing it up off the screen around the edges every time I gripped the phone or really did anything. Thank you Best Buy associate for selling me a crappy case telling me it was a great one. So far the new one fixes the issues I had with the old one. I elected to spend my money at the Verizon store for that.

The new screen protector that I got is a Zagg invisible shield. It's what I had before, but that crappy phone case ruined it. I'm going to have Corey professionally install it so I should have a much better result this time. :)

It was fun both of us having the same day off together! He's back to work tomorrow, but I get a couple more days. Thank goodness. I may need it for when I'm back at the hospital all weekend. I'm afraid my good day being floated to telemetry may owe me some crappy days on med-surg.


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"when you're with me, I'll make you believe"

clocks

Today started out great.

I got that lovely 5am call from work putting me on stand by. I got a few extra hours of sleep and snuggles, and then got called back in at 9:15. The unfortunate thing about coming in late from being on stand by is that you get all the new admissions. Which on day shift can be catastrophic depending on the type of patients you get. Fortunately, the Force was with me and I got a great group of post-op patients that made the day not so bad. I hope to get that same group tomorrow. They are fab.

Yesterday, I went grocery shopping without being budget conscious. It was wonderful. I got a ton of delicious food like black grapes, Nutella, OJ, butternut squash soup, Chai tea, Triscuit crackers, and lots of other yummies. It was my most satisfying shopping trip in quite some time. I'm eating Triscuits with Nutella as I type this. I just had to talk about that. For no particular reason.

I had a little something to talk about, but I'm afraid it's not really appropriate for this outlet. I will only say this: Be careful of sharing financial responsibilities with anyone. Including a close friend. I am talking specifically about sharing a residence and payments for it. If you can afford it, I recommend living alone. And don't be charitable when someone can't hold up their end of the bargain. Never say, "oh it's okay this time," because people will only take advantage of you from then on.

Live and learn, I suppose.

I can't wait for Corey to come home. I think he had an exciting day, too.


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"cursed missed opportunities"

moving to mars

What a long few days at work. I'm hoping this is a good and relaxing weekend. I am back at work Monday and Tuesday, but then I have 3 more days off, so I can hopefully manage that.

This feels like it's going to be a post with several random topics in it.

The next one being Coldplay's announcement of their new album, "Mylo Xyloto." There are a few songs on it that are already available, and I have to say, I'm excited. Although, I am always excited to hear new music from them.

Next small random topic: My parents will be here today to move my sister into her new apartment for the school year! I think I am charged with entertaining Ruby for the day and maybe going swimming. Hard work, I know. Should be a very good day.

Moving right along... Corey is officially back from training for his job. He goes to work today, I think, as a regular employee not on orientation. Exciting! I think he is excited. I think this is a job he will really be good at and enjoy.

Last night to celebrate Corey being back, and for me to wind down after a tough week at work, we ate at the Olive Garden. It's my fake Italian guilty pleasure and I love it. Of course since I was in a post-work-must-enjoy-myself mood, I made sure we had an appetizer, wine, good entrees and dessert. Ran up the bill pretty good, but I thought it was worth it. I'm eating my left over tiramisu right now. Yum! Some breakfast, lol.

I'm sure I'll post something more coherent this weekend when I'm feeling more inspired, but I think that is it for this Saturday morning.


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"one day we'll be living in the stars"

heal the world

This week has been worse than the last time Corey was gone for training. I've been terribly bored and unmotivated to be productive at all.

Part of this may be that I am in a little depression having finished all the episodes of The Tudors (where I cried during the last episode like a fool). I'm looking for something to fill the void, but I'm not sure what that will be yet. Not much could top that as far as suiting my interests perfectly.

In my boredom, I went shopping around yesterday. Surprisingly to me, it was hard for me to even take interest in shopping around, which is NEVER a problem for me usually! I found nothing at TJMaxx. Never happens. Could not find a new phone case I liked at Best Buy. Not shocked on that one. Could not motivate myself to get anything at Victoria's Secret. Rarely happens.

So I settled on a pair of Toms shoes at Warren's. I have wanted a pair for a while, and I must say they are pretty cute and surprisingly comfortable. They feel too light to be as cushy as they are in the soles, and they actually have some attempts at arch support. I got the brown metallic tweed style. I think that is a new-ish style since looking at them on the website.

I will say this about buying Toms shoes: You really need to try on the specific pair you want! I do not recommend buying them off of the website for a few reasons. First they run surprisingly small. Now, you do want them to be a bit tight around the ball of the foot (across the tops of the toes) because the material stretches. I was told by the sales associate that they also stretch a bit at the heel, so if they are hard to get on at first, that is what you want. I would personally size it with the length of your foot to the length of the hard sole with about a quarter inch extra room on each end and that should be the right size.

Back to how small they run on top of that: I generally wear a 6.5 or 7 in all shoes. I own a wide variety of shoe styles, and all of them are one of those two sizes. I had to get a 7.5 to get the length right and still have tightness across the top of the foot and the heel when putting them on (which should resolve the more I wear them and they stretch). I was also told by the sales associate that all materials fit differently, so I would say even more so, based on that, if you are looking into buying this shoe, you should try them on in person!

In any case, I do really like them so far. I wear them without socks, and they are very comfortable. Plus they have a charity cause attached to them, so you'll be doing something nice for someone else in addition to yourself! No complaints there, for sure.

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"there's a place in your heart, and I know that it is love"

bloody mary

It is known by many close to me that I have a have a historical interest and sometimes obsession with the British monarchy, particularly the Tudor era. It has always interested me, and now I have found a tv show on Netflix that satisfies my English history nerd fantasy.

It is as you may have guessed, The Tudors which airs on Showtime. Obviously, I do not have showtime and cannot therefore watch the newest episodes, but I watched all that was available on Netflix, and holy cow, I love that show. Corey picks on me for mucking up his "recommended for Corey" playlist on Netflix with documentaries, and now it's even more filled with history documentaries and historical dramas. I would highly recommend this show for anyone mildly interested in that era of European history. I would even say that it's content is very accurate in addition to having the drama that makes it good television.

Look it up. Watch it. Now excuse me while I watch some documentary on Queen Elizabeth on Netflix. Best $8 I spend every month for sure.


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"je ne veux pas mourir toute seule"

young forever

I am fiddling around with my blog look again. I really like the typewriter style type face. We'll see how long this one lasts.

I took a couple of pictures of the new place to post on here. Note that we are still in the process of sorting things out and moving in, so there is some messy-ness. Do forgive me :)

The first picture is of the office. We have Corey's desk in the front corner, the bed in the back corner, and the loveseat on the wall with the door, though you can't really see that here.

The next picture is taken from the front door looking diagonally toward the other bedroom. It shows the living room and some of the kitchen. Again, sorry for the messy house.

After I took those, I decided to take a couple cute ones. One is of Abigail and the other of some flowers I got at the grocery store the other day.

And lastly, how could I pass up taking a picture of the thermostat? It's a cool 110 here in Fayetteville. And our thermometer sits in the shade. Fab.

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"we live a life like a video; where the sun is always out and you never get old"